Mistaken for Strangers

Ever been mistaken for someone far more daring and dangerous than you actually are?

I have.  Multiple times, in fact.

During my first year of teaching while reading a book about a boy who wanted to be a pirate, one of my girls was in awe of my ability to speak "pirate".  I didn't bother to tell her that it's not typically recognized as an actual language.  Or that I picked it up simply by reading what the author had written.  I wish I could have claimed to have learned to speak "pirate" while spending months on a pirate ship off the cost of Bora Bora with the one and only Captain Braid Beard.  But sadly, that never happened.  Internally, I was kicking myself for never having done something that dangerous.

For the longest time, that story topped the Times I Wished My Student's Perception Was Actually Reality List (TIWMSPWARL for short...or rather, for slightly less long).

Last week, a casual conversation took a turn that ultimately landed the top spot on the TIWMSPWARL (note to self: create simpler names for lists that only exist inside my head).

On Monday, I was walking in the hall when one of my students from last year came up to say hi.  I had seen her sitting on her porch with her mom as I drove by her house on the way home after school the previous Friday.  I had honked and waved at them, and they both waved back.   

So as we began to talk, I mentioned seeing her and her mom as I drove past their house on Friday.  At first, she smiled and said, "Oh yeah!  We saw you, too."  Then her face changed, and I could tell that she was confused about something.  She looked up at me and asked, "Were those real guns on your car?"

At first, I wasn't exactly sure what she meant, but then I quickly realized what she was referring to.  My "real guns" were actually just my bike rack.

As I explained to her what a bike rack is and why I have one on my car, I was kicking myself once again for being far less dangerous than I appeared.  This time, I was bummed out by the fact that I drive just an average Corolla and not the Batmobile.

Someday, maybe someday, I'll be as daring and dangerous as my students perceive me to be.