We used to have this IT cover teacher for a while in high school. Our actual teacher went away or had something else to do or some relative died (I don’t remember exactly and at this point I don’t really give a shit). The point is, once we met this dude, we didn’t want our actual teacher back.
From the moment this guy stepped inside the classroom there was something about him. He had this cool badass confidence, while keeping calm and wearing a charming smirk. The hair was curly and he was slightly balding. To this day nobody knows exactly whether or not he was completely sober during our encounters. He started breaking the ice right away with some jokes and we all respected this guy right away, naturally, without the use on his behalf of fancy grave talk asserting the same authority that others would use so passionately.
We had this guy joining our IT classes for about 2 weeks but still, as I write this, I remember him more often than I could ever remember most of the other humans playing the teacher role on the spam of 4 years. The first day he joined he took the catalog with all the names and called them one by one to check for absents. He announced every name like some host would announce the acts of an evening concert on Wembley stadium or any other reputable arena of the sort. He messed up some of the names, including one of my best friends from the class, and ever since we switched to that crooked name for good. There would be no turning back.
A cool teacher always tells a story, and oh boy, did this guy have plenty! And he loved to deliver his own tales in the same way he fancied being the listener of others’ tales himself. He asked us if we liked rap music and after some of us responded positively, he went right into his recalls of concerts from the late 90s of various rap artists that were big now (in Romania, not globally, but still pretty good) but back then they were mere underground curiosities. He talked about the Transnistria conflicts and how it was uncertain whether or not the whole ordeal ended there, since every now and then there was some shooting involved.
What really got us rolling was that he would turn almost everything into a pun. On our computers we saw some tiny stickers in the corner saying “INTEL INSIDE” and this guy would be like: “You know what they say: INTEL INSIDE, IDIOT OUTSIDE!”. We almost cracked with laughter. But he kept on going: “Turn on your computers and make sure the little bulb lights up, ok??” IT lessons could’ve never been better.
This legend of a teacher would not always be animated like that though. Every rose has its thorns and every fun IT teacher has his own limits on the show delivered to a lucky bunch of students like we were. He would sometimes sit for a while at his teacher table, pondering, as weak and weary, to regain his blissful powers. We looked at him in his tranquil state and what did we spy with our curious eyes? The man himself got a vape out and started blowing clouds right in front of us! Never before, nor after, was I to see a teacher vaping in the classroom. Not even during my whole time spent as a student in the Netherlands. It was a special sight. He didn’t have a second of hesitation and delivered his act like it was his damn living room. He owned it. The vape, the place, the people. He simply delivered, without saying a single word, that he was right doing that, and we also knew he was right. He knew that we knew and we knew that he knew that we knew and it was the righteous way. Technically, he wasn’t breaking any law, since vaping was basically letting steam out. Flavored, thickly dense steam clouds, but steam nonetheless. But one would never know how one of them narrow minded old timer teachers would twist that into a felony or some punishable disgrace of an action. Anyway, we all witnessed a superb moment. One couldn’t help but admire the scene.
This guy was so epic that he would stimulate even some of the rebels, anti-establishment students to actually go to school and be part of the class instead of skipping to do whatever. There was this classmate from the outskirts who liked to kill time in bars or parks, go gambling, join gypsy music clubs or simply spit endless amounts of sunflower seeds on a pavement of his own choice. Let’s just call him Juba, for the sake of this story.
One day our first lesson was the IT class and Juba was somewhere else in the neighborhood. We were all certain we would have our regular teacher walk into the classroom. But not that one day. The miracle happened once again and our hero walked in, bringing the same airs and vibes. Juba was nowhere to be seen though. One of us texted him to see what was going on.
“What are you doing dude?”
“I’m a few stations away, smoking and chilling.”
“You’re not coming?”
“Nah, I don’t wanna see that IT bitch. I’ll be coming later.”
“Dude, she’s not here. We have the stoned IT dude again!”
“SHIT! I’M ON MY WAY.”
And in like 10 minutes Juba was there among us, enjoying the company of the only teacher who had ever spawned this guy to do such a thing. This would be a fantasy at any other class. That right there was the power of charm this particular teacher possessed. The vibes were strong with this one. Teachers today are often unaware of the vibe power. And when they would be told about it they would simply ignore it, calling it nonsense. But that was all there had to be done to reverse a crooked, outdated and poor education system. Imagine, my dear reader, what would be the fate of Juba if every single one of our high school teachers possessed the vibe power of this IT dude. Imagine if Juba would’ve been genuinely interested in joining every class as that particular IT class from that particular day. There were many such Juba characters in many schools that deep down wanted a teacher like this IT guy but fate wasn’t there to avail them.
We dearly missed this guy and we were looking forward to see him walk again into the classroom but it didn’t really happen. I guess good things never last. But we didn’t cry because it all ended. The fact that it even happened brought a smile on each occasion we recalled those lessons.