This weekend, two of my former students were accepted to college.  They went to Humboldt State University's early admissions day and were accepted on the spot.  I am not surprised, but it still makes me very happy.

At the end of each year, students leave the classroom and I don't see much of them again.  Most of the students stay at the school for sixth grade, and I see them the next year.  After sixth grade promotion, they go off to junior high and I rarely see them again.  

These two students were different.  One of them, I was quite friendly with his mother, and I had his sister as a student the year after he was in my class.  I really enjoyed him and I kept up with the family.  They moved out of the area, and then returned a couple of years later.  He wasn't sure he had the requirements to get into college due to moving around in the early high school years, but he was fine. When he was in my class as a sixth grader, he was quiet and introspective.  He was very funny and most of his humor came out in comics that he wrote.  He would give me books of comics that even today I remember in detail.  

The other one was in my class for his fifth grade year.  He and I became friends -  so much so that the next year, when I taught sixth grade, I opted not to have him as a student in my class because I thought it would be better for both of us.  I knew he would walk all over me and I would spend more time finding books for him to read and talking about books and other things, that neither of us would do what we really needed to do.  This particular student has come back to visit and hang out often in the years since the fifth grade.  He hangs out, checks the mini-fridge for food and plays games on my computer. 

Granted, these students (and others) are more the exception than the rule with my continued relationships with students once they leave my classroom.  Some I email regularly with, some are friends of mine on facebook, and others, like the two above, come by all the time and let me know when they get into college.  

I never had any doubt that these two would get into college, but I am still proud of them - and take a little bit (a very little bit) of credit for their academic success.