brian_h

I had something happen to me today and I can't quite put the way I feel about it into words. First, a little background on me:

I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs. Never even tried it. My outlet and the thing that saved my life (literally) was always music. I was a trumpet player growing up and I was pretty fucking good. So, obviously band played a pretty big role in high school. I was very passionate about it. We had a band director my junior and senior years that was looking to turn a failing music program around and, with the help of myself and a few others, he did. We were an award winning marching and concert band and enrollment in the elementary and junior high schools went up astronomically due to our hard work and passion for music.

Now, this teacher of mine (and his wife) had a HUGE impact on my life. He was a mentor and a hero to me and I always felt that if I could go on to be the kind of man he was that I would be doing pretty good for myself. it was kinda funny because my high school sweetheart (who I married and then divorced) always said that he and I were a lot alike.

I recently came back into contact with him for the first time in 12 years. I've got some heavy issues that I'm dealing with right now in my personal life, so the timing is kinda good. Throughout the course of catching up, he said something to me in an email today that absolutely floored me (thus the subject of my blog). He told me that when his son (who is the same age as my daughter) was born a few years back, he told his wife that he had hoped that their son could grow up to be the kind of man that I was. What do you say to that? Here was a guy who I hold in such high regard saying that he wanted his son to be like me. I can't even wrap my brain around that.

So...yeah. I can't quite put into words how that makes me feel. Just thought I'd share.Thanks for reading.

Later...