A New Year's Resolution by way of Halloween

I received this photo in an email from a former student a couple of days ago. I had never seen the photo before, but do remember taking it.

During the first passing period on Halloween 2004, a student I did not know stopped dead in front of me. His mouth fell open and he asked "how did you DO that?" I asked what he meant. He told me he had just seen me over by the quad a minute ago and it was amazing that I had beat him to where I was now standing. I just thought he was kidding around. Then MY students started coming by and I finally understood what was going on. Someone had dressed like me for Halloween.

As usual, the students weren't too sure how I'd react to something so bold. I just laughed. I finally saw Christina right before lunch. She really got my mannerisms and everything. At the time this photo was taken I had a striped sweater, black skirt and boots almost exactly like the ones she was wearing (that's Christina on the left).

I was surprised to find that some of my colleagues expected me to be offended. Maybe we take ourselves too seriously sometimes. So, one New Year's Resolution is to remind myself of this photo. Having a student imitate me could actually be instructive. At the very least it's entertaining if I remember not to take myself too seriously.