Ok, so I haven’t really participated in memes before (blogger tag, for those not in the know), and I must say: Reading the posts from the people I tagged yesterday just made my friggin day! Here’s just a sampling, and they’ve tagged a bunch of folks too, so what out all over the blogosphere for some “teacher thank you” love. (And thanks to J.K. Gayle for starting it of course!)

Courtney Martin at Crucial Minutiae includes:
2. Papa, for teaching me how to be kind to and curious about every human being on earth
3. Chris, for making me shoot baskets in the alley, teaching me how to roll a joint, and making me feel like the most precious creature on earth
4. Nikolai, for teaching me how to breathe, be present, revel, and say “beef patty”

Elizabeth Curtis at A Blog without a Bicycle includes:
1. My mum, because she raised me to be a feminist without me even knowing it
2. My baby brother, because he is my hero and my role model
3. Ms. Cutrer, because she was the first person to tell me that I was a good writer in fourth grade

Alison Peipmeier at Baxter Sez: includes:
4. Kurt Eisen, also at Tennessee Tech. Kurt is the reason that, when I went to grad school, I decided to study American literature. He taught me about the literary canon and invited me to start taking it down.
5. Cecelia Tichi and Teresa Goddu at Vanderbilt University. As co-directors of my dissertation, these women reshaped my entire brain. It wasn’t always a pleasant process, but it worked. And Cecelia took me on as a personal project, hiring me as her research and teaching assistant, letting me help her run an NEH Summer Institute, taking me for countless coffees and lunches, mentoring me in how to be a scholar and a woman with a life. When I moved to Charleston, she sent me an afghan that her high school English teacher had made for her. She wanted to pass it on to me, and maybe someday I can give it to a special student of mine.

Wow–I got chills.