Moorhead State was a liberal arts college. As such, it had a foreign language requirement and I signed up for Spanish my freshman year. The prof was a dapper, proper Latino gentleman - formal, straight laced and utterly humorless. He was about 5' 6" and 125 pounds soaking wet. His tolerance for high-spirited, fun loving students (like me) was nonexistent.
Although I wasn't aware of it at the time, he was unimpressed by my lighthearted attitude, decided early on that I wasn't the scholarly, serious student he preferred in his classes. Finally, 30 years later, I discovered just how unimpressed he was: my freshman dorm roommate said the prof called me a 'bad influence.' I was incensed! The nerve of the little prick! He was entitled to his opinion of course, but trying to alienate my friends (he failed, by the way) was way out of line. A few years later, another college friend told me the same thing. For all I know, the little shit got it published on the front page of the New York Times!
The 'bad influence' thing didn't bother me for long, though. In fact, I soon came to embrace it. A few years ago, Trish gave me business cards for Bad Influence, Inc., with me as president. Last Christmas, Trish gifted me with a custom license plate frame, the kind that let you choose your own message. Several days back I finally chose the wording and ordered the frame. Here it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment