The Hand Expert

feeling the breeze
Originally uploaded by gliuoo

My sixth grade teacher just friended me on Facebook. I find that to be quite awesome. Especially because he was possibly one of the coolest teachers I ever had. He played the drums, was the coach of the basketball team and always did experiments from 'Bill Nye: The Science Guy'. (Maybe I had a crush on him... Hmmm, I never realized...)

Anyway, one of the most memorable assignments from his class was to choose any subject, research it and become an "expert". While other kids chose to be experts on surfing, the guitar and baking cookies, I chose to be an expert on hands. I memorized all the bones, muscles and drew huge diagrams. If I think about it now, I imagine my classmates were bored out of their minds during my presentation as I recited all the bones in the hand pointing them out on my huge pictures. 

Fast forward six years. It was my senior year at one of my high school's basketball games. I noticed my sixth grade teacher sitting a couple of rows ahead of me. I went over, introduced myself and asked if he remembered me.

His response: "Of course! The hand expert!"

As a child and throughout my life, I've always enjoyed drawing hands. A part of me thinks that's why I chose to be a hand expert.