The Wonderful World of Senior Moments

She stood there standing in front of me with a big smile on her face. I stared back smiling as hard as I could in hopes my mind would catch up to my past. The person I am talking about was an ex-student who graduated about twelve years ago. She told me I was one of her favorite teachers. She also started to talk about all the funny and wonderful times she had in my class and on my many field trips. I, on the other, hand could not remember her name. In fact, I couldn’t even remember the times.

The older I get the more senior moments I experience. They are totally frustrating and a bit scary. My niece told me to relax the other day by telling me not to worry about it. At the time I was scouring my house looking for my car keys. She told me that forgetting where you put things like car keys was a normal occurrence in life. But, after you find them and forget what they are used for; this could be a problem.

I’ve always had a problem remembering people’s names. Many of my friends and family have told me I am rude because I can’t be bothered to remember something as important as a name. I tell them I am not trying to be rude. It is I have a tough time with names. My biggest fear is when I go to a party or go out with a group of friends who don’t know each other. If I ever have to introduce these people to each other I usually freeze. Thank God, I married my Debbie who basically understands my weaknesses. The number of years we’ve been together has strengthened her talent to remember names.

At the beginning of every school year I tell my students not to be upset if I forget their names. I tell them that I should have them all down in my memory by Christmas break. But, every now and then I still forget a first name deep into the spring semester. I just use the old standby nickname, “kiddo” if I lose track of who the person is. But, when a student asks if I’ve forgotten their name I just tell them to write it off as another one of my senior moments.