Since everyone seemed to enjoy hearing about my adventures in the inner city, here's another delightful work story for you. This past spring, I taught a freshman biology class. We were doing a unit on forest ecology, so I took the kids to a park right across from campus. We took soil samples, identified plants, measured trees, etc. As we were walking back at the end of the class, a car that was parked on the small road that goes through the wooded park rolled down its window.
There was a guy in the driver's seat, and a female passenger. The woman (probably 25-ish, but she looked about 10 years older) asked if we were a class from the university. I replied that yes, we were a biology class, and she sighed and said, "I always thought about going back to school."
I replied with an encouraging, "It's never too late. And the school has some great financial aid offers if you qualify," and turned to leave. That's when I noticed that her arm was tied off and she had a freaking needle in her hand.
What kind of drug addict decides to strike up a conversation from a parked car in the midst of shooting up?
After I ensured all of the students were ahead of me, I noticed a group of them giggling incredulously. Apparently they'd seen it, too. So I used the opportunity to give my class a quick lecture on the dangers of drugs and the importance of staying in school. Ha!
