I think my one regret over the years is that I haven’t done much travel. So, when I had the opportunity to go to the 2014 Tapia conference, I jumped at the chance. I didn’t get to see too much of Seattle, but that’s OK. Now I’ve more incentive to go back.

In addition to seeing new sites, it also gave me an opportunity to see friends that I don’t get to see too often.

I frequently talk about the StuyCS family. That it’s all about people and all about community. I’m proud that I started this family and I’m always blown away by the guys. It’s one thing for alums to swing by the school a couple of years after they graduate but it’s another when they want to see me as much as I them even after ten or twenty years.

It was a little tricky to coordinate between conference commitments and their schedules but we ended up having two dinners.

First I got together with Mike (StuyCS ‘97), his wife Linsday, and Helene. I’ll always remember Mike for being the police officer when he, William, Emil (I think) and Paul were the Village People for Halloween. It was amazing to see him, meet his wife talk about old times and see what he’s doing today.

Helene isn’t StuyCS, but she is an educator of a kindred spirit, over the years, I’ve met many CS educators. Some “get it” many don’t. Helene clearly does. We clicked right off the bat. As with my alums outside of the city, I regret that we only get to see each other once every few years.

Two nights later, I got together with Sam (StuyCS ‘96), Daemon (StuyCS ‘06) and Matt (StuyCS ‘07) along with Boback, Alan, and Ephraim, three other high school teachers who attended the conference.

I hope we didn’t bore the teachers with our high school stories, but I really had a blast. We talked about old times, we talked of current issues, good food and good friends. We spanned 27 years of Stuy but that didn’t matter. Get a bunch of bright interesting like minded people together and good things happen.

I feel amazingly blessed that I can travel across the country and students from 10 and 20 years ago want to get together to catch up. I guess I should really say friends, not students.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my career as I close in on 25 years of teaching. What impact I’ve had, what I could have done better, what I did right.

I think I can live with the StuyCS family as my legacy.