The importance of being a kid's crush

When I was a student at secondary school I always paid close attention to my teachers; not only to what they said, but also to how they looked like, the way they spoke, their gestures. While I grew up, I remember hearing my male classmates saying how pretty our Psychology teacher was or what a great body our Culture and Art teacher had. They fell irremediably in love with them, because they were young and had a nice body, or a nice face, but also because of how they spoke and the gestures they made. I remember thinking that they were lucky -my classmates, I mean- because we hardly ever had male teachers and the ones we had were old and pretty much disgusting, so we girls fell a bit disappointed.

It was a curious thing to see: the boys were so crazy about these two teachers that even the most barbaric ones behaved like perfect gentlemen and paid close attention to their lessons. They would fail in every subject, except for Psychology and Culture and Art. They even stayed a bit longer inside the classroom even after the bell rang just to wait for them to leave. They wanted to enjoy their presence until the very last second. So, yes, most of them had a major crush on these two teachers, and that was one of the things that scared me the most when I began teaching because you never know if you can handle it (not because I would pay attention in that sense to one of my students, but because they can get confused and interpret you in the wrong way, that meaning huge troubles).

Let's face it: I'm 24 years old and began teaching at a school when I was 19; I was very, very young at that point (I still am, for some people) and could not possibly handle a group of 17-year-old students because of the age difference. So, when my boss at that time called me and asked me to work as the substitute teacher of English of 11-year-old children, I agreed happily.

I don't mean to sound cocky at all, but I'm not that bad physically speaking. I told you before, back then I had 10 kilos less than now, and was 1,70 mts tall (as I am now). My hair is dark brown and my eyes are green, so I'm a bit attractive to some people. The thing is that, while I believed it could not happen because they were 11, I ended up becoming not only the substitute teacher of English, but one of my student's crush.

He was the sweetest child to me, but outside the classroom he was an authentic pain in the ass. The other teachers loathed him! And, back then, I could not understand why because he was such a sweetheart with me and I protected him as if he was my son. However, three years later, when he was in the 9th grade, with 14 years old and almost 20 cms more than me, I turned out to be his teacher again and he made his feelings towards me very clear the first day I entered the classroom with the head of the English Department -who's also my friend, Pamela. He came to us and said to her: "Can I give you a hug? You're the best! You've chosen the most beautiful teacher of English in this school to be our teacher!" I could not believe what I was hearing and he took advantage of that and added, still talking to my friend: "I want to marry her someday, but I doubt she'll ever pay me attention". I was shocked, and my friend told him to behave propperly so that I could like him more (it was just a strategy to get him to behave in a better way because he almost gets expelled from school that year).

Well, the rest of the year was pretty much like my secondary school years and my male classmates liking the teachers: he waited for me to arrive and told me how pretty I looked, or asked me if I was tired, or told me about any song he had heard on the radio he had thought we could work with in class. He would behave propperly, and do everything I asked him (and the rest of the class, of course) to do for my subject, he even studied! (which is much to say because he suffers from the Lack of Attention Syndrome) I, in exchange, would help him with everything teachers help their students,what he didn't understand, what he needed me to explain him again. And obviously, following my motherly instinct, I protected him from the other teachers who didn't know anything about his personal history or his attention issues.  He had to work hard to pass the other subjects because he had nearly failed in all of them, except from mine. I've always valued his efforts and knew how hard it was for him to be there and pay attention, and he realized he knew a lot more than what he thought he knew about the language. He was a good student.

The year ended and he, once more, said that he wanted to marry me, but since he knew it is impossible he said I would always be his crush. And also, he said that apart from that, I was the best teacher he had ever had because I was the most understanding and compassionate and I had helped him a lot throughout the year. I was almost in tears that day, because he really meant it and I was very, very proud of him and his accomplishments.

Now, he is almost 16, and 1.90 mts tall and has a girlfriend; anywhere he sees me he stops to say hello and I always feel happy to see him progress because I've treated him like a son, but he always tells everyone at school that he'll always love his 6th year substitute teacher of English. Being a kid's crush wasn't so bad in the end.