Sara graduated from King George a few years ago now. She was a particularly memorable student for several reasons:
- she is one of those (kind of annoying) people who does really, REALLY well in school without seeming to have to work all that hard. I mean, I could be wrong; maybe she was cramming away every evening at home and only looked carefree and semi-interested at school (I have my doubts).
I remember one time, we were doing some difficult concept in Principles of Math 11 (now "PreCalculus 11"). Sara walked in a little late (it happened from time to time), sat down and pulled out a crossword puzzle (or Sudoku or something). After 10 minutes of her pouring over the paper, I could not handle it anymore. "Sara!" I barked.
Sara (smiling sweetly): yes?
Me: Do you have any idea what is going on?
Sara (shrugging shoulders): Probably
Me: Well then, why don't you tell us how to solve this linear programming question!
Sara (after a pause of about 2 whole seconds): you need to set up three inequalities to represent the constraints. The first one would be 2x + 3y < 28 and the second is...
Me: All right. All right. That's fine.
To this day, I don't know how she did logic puzzles and learned math at the same time. - she shares a birthday with me!! October 6 was so much fun when Sara was at KG. She'd start talking about it weeks in advance and - by the time it arrived - she'd gotten me all excited for the "big day" as well. A couple of times I snuck in PA announcements to wish the both of us a great birthday (I doubt that was looked upon too highly by some of my colleagues). My birthday has never seemed quite so momentous ever since Sara left. But I think of her fondly every October 6!!
- she has a bit of a twisted / warped / weird sense of humour... and I love it! Sometimes Sara would go on one of her stream-of-consciousness stories / jokes and I'd struggle to follow where she was headed. But, inevitably, she would arrive at a place that was very, very funny. Definitely one of the most amusing students I have ever taught.
Thank you Sara for all the good laughs you provided me with over the years. You always had such a great spirit about you - I can't recall a single time you weren't brimming with positivity and smiles. You are the sort of person who brightens up the people around her. It's hard to feel grumpy or tired or annoyed when you are in the room. What a special trait to have! You are a gift SM! All the best to you!
And good luck with that lemur onesie!