Oh my. Glory days?
Well, I was a pretty good football player in high school and played Division III college ball. But in college I was just another good lineman. And I was also an ass and didn't "hit the books" and became ineligible.
I married a bright, talented beautiful woman and together we produced a brilliant young woman with a world-class mind. But those accomplishments belong to the women. I was just lucky to be along for the ride.
My real glory days didn't come along until my second career. In 1990 I became a mathematics teacher. After 25 years working in industry, I found my true calling. I was able to get kids excited about math – they didn't just want to find the value of
x, but every letter of the alphabet.
We formed a math club and began going to competitions. We were successful. We won lots of trophies, both team and individual. Our trophy case included a number of state championships and some online national competition wins. But the success was not due to my coaching. All I did was show them the excitement of math, and then they just grabbed it and ran.
We did lots of neat things in our classroom. My geometry classes built toothpick bridges. Built only with toothpicks and glue and weighing no more than 50 grams (about 1-3/4 ounces), winning bridges would support in excess of 50 kilograms (111 pounds). All my classes did the "3 sheets of paper" challenge, trying to support as many textbooks as possible 4 inches above the desktop with just 3 sheets of copy paper (nothing else, no staples or paperclips, etc.). How much fun it was to watch kids standing on chairs carefully placing book number 18 or 20 on their stack.
But the really special part of my being a teacher was connecting with my students on a personal level. I was invited to Eagle Scout inductions, Guru Vandana ceremonies, and graduation celebrations. I have received e-mails from kids in college. Since I taught in middle school (6th through 8th grades), being remembered by teens in high school and later is a huge recognition. Teens tend to shed off teachers like old teeshirts.
As I finish writing this, I am reflecting and thinking that these were not my glory days, but rather my days of good fortune. There is no way I could have been more favored than to spend the second half of my working life in the classroom.