Take a Second Look.

Today, like every day for the past 8 weeks, I went to my first class and waited outside for my teacher to arrive. Next door to my classroom is a Spanish class whose teacher I have always found to be rather odd. Every morning, like clockwork, she stands outside her classroom with an amiable smile on her face awaiting the arrival of her students. As they begin to show up, the teacher greets every student with a friendly "İHola! Buenos días" and shaking their hands as they enter the room. Of course the students just brush her off, shaking her hand as limply as possible and not even looking her in the eyes. Every morning this happens. Every morning the teacher waits outside and greets each student with a smile and a handshake and, in return, all she receives is a grumbled "hola." They all think what I used to think about that wacky teacher: Is this woman for real?
At first, I thought that having a teacher stand outside the classroom every morning greeting me in a foreign language and shaking my hand like a business associate would annoy me immensely. Although as I took another look at the situation, I began to realize that the teacher was not trying to embarrass them, but rather she was trying to show her students that she respects them as people and that she truly is excited to see them each morning. I would be grateful to have someone express their respect for me when no other teacher has.
As teenagers, many of us have those common, arrogant attitudes that we use to put a wall between our outside appearance and our true emotions. I speak for myself when I say that the person I project on the outside is not always in sync with the "me" on the inside. Sometimes when someone, say a zany teacher, graciously attempts to treat one as a mature young adult whom she respects, the natural instinct of many immature teens is to portray themselves as "too good" for her opinion. Believe it or not, I used to be like some of those superior (or so they thought) teens, constantly assuming I knew anything and everything and that I didn't need a teacher to respect me. Thankfully, I have changed for the better. I've always been a nice person, but the inner "me" would always scream in her little voice, "You know more than these idiots. Ignore them!" I absolutely hated that part of me a few years back. But now, I'm glad that I have changed and that I can see the benefit of having a wacky teacher like the one next door to my classroom that will always respect me.