Am in candyland :)

Perhaps I blogged a tad too early about not getting cookies or cards from students this term.

One student, "J," emails me:

With the stacks of finals that I saw in your office, you've got a looong session of reading ahead of you! Breaks are a gooood thing!    I'm making candy today- will you be on campus Friday before noon?

Thus, I missed out on the candy!

Not even an hour after that email--57 minutes later, to be exact--was another email from a student, C," who wanted to know when I will be in my office for her to drop off something for me.  When I replied that I would not be in again until the new year, she followed up with:

That is too bad; I had a nice note and some chocolate to give you. I will just paste the note here so at least you get that:

Sriram,

I wanted to thank you for such a challenging, educational, and supportive term! At times I felt as though I wanted to give up.  [I deleted the personal matters,]   Through all of that, I feel more accomplished after this term. Your course taught me a lot. I found myself talking about the class material with my colleagues and family. They too found it interesting. I feel proud of the work I produced [more deleted]

I am the youngest child of five, and the only one to go to college  [more deleted]

Thank you for being so supportive over the last 2 years while I tried to finish this course. I do not know if any other professor would have done the same. I know you once said it is about our education, and part of your job is to facilitate that learning. You also said, that years from now it won't matter what grade we get in this course; what will matter is the knowledge we took from it.

How awesome it is to get such emails, right?  A lucky guy, I am!

I wish "C" and "J" and "I" and everybody else a wonderful life.