Well its back-to-school – for me. It has been a long three months without my students and frankly I have missed the interaction. A large cohort of our students graduated in May and I was sad to see them go. By virtue of the classes I teach, I typically see all the undergraduate students in three classes, sometimes four. I come to know them well and they come to know me well. So when they graduate and move on I miss them.

I usually have one favorite class each semester (based on the way the class interacts with each other). Last semester that was my Response class. By semester’s end that class was so cohesive that I loathed letting them go. Eight of the members of that class graduated in May. Today I want to talk about one in particular, Chuck. Chuck was alternatively referred to as Charles, Charlie, C², C-dizzle and The Man based on the semester, the day or the event. With each name change a slightly different persona appeared (not multiple personalities like Sybil ).

In semester one he was Charlie and he was quiet and respectful and polite. In semester two he started out as Chuck. That was the semester that the phrase “Shut the Chuck up!” came about. In semester two I had him in two classes and it was then that the name change phenomenon really took its foothold. Chuck whose initials are “CC” like me decided that to avoid confusion he would be C2. On days when he was a tad more serious he was Charles. In many an email he was C-dizzle. After working on the flood as a part of our emergency management team he was dubbed “The Man” (and as this title came from a group of women who intended it with both adoration and respect for his work he wore that one with pride).

Over the semesters I came to know Chuck, et al as a more then a wisecracking kid with a quick wit. Chuck, I discovered, was quite genuine and a person of great heart. He reminds me of one of the kids in the eighties brat pack movies who is glib and cool on the outside, but soft and mushy on the inside. Chuck and I developed a great rapport over time, but it wasn’t until the recent flood fight that I fully appreciated what a go to guy he was.

During the flood, we had a small core team of about a dozen working on information and volunteer management with FirstLink. Chuck teamed with another student at one of the volunteer registration sites and worked 12+ hours for days. He took charge and he made sure that the things that had to come together came together. That is how he came to be referred to as “The Man”. Frankly, I was a bit shocked at the level of Chuck’s performance. I didn’t expect as much as he delivered. But I should have known that Chuck was the kind of guy who you can count on in a pinch. He’ll be a great emergency manager some day and I guess at that point I’ll be able to say I knew him when he was C-dizzle.

As I look at my classrooms full of new students today I will miss seeing that friendly face in the baseball cap. He was always good for a laugh and he always bailed me out with a response to my questions when the rest of the class had suddenly become mute. Chuck, by any other name, was still Chuck – a good kid with a big heart.

Chuck is off to boot camp in a couple of weeks. The days of saying “Shut the Chuck up!” are gone, but the memories are all intact. I’ll really miss Chuck, but the beauty of my job is that every semester I get to know dozens of new students many who will endear themselves to me before they graduate and move on. I’ll miss them all in different ways and I will be delighted to have had the chance to get to know and interact with them.

Yes, I know I am waxing sentimental. Give me a few weeks and I will settle back into the reality of the school year…until then, one last time – “Shut the Chuck up!”

Day fifty-one of the new forty – obla di obla da

CC