Thank You, Mr. Alvarez

Dear Mr. Alvarez,

You taught me chemistry in eleventh grade, and you probably don't remember me. I sat in the back and pretended I hated your class. I didn't. I loved the day you lit a gummy bear on fire and the whole room screamed.

You used to say "Curiosity is a muscle." I thought it was corny. I'm thirty-four now and a lab technician at a water treatment plant, and I say it to every intern who walks through our door.

You stayed after school to help me with stoichiometry three Tuesdays in a row and never once made me feel slow. You drew little smiling molecules in the margins of my tests.

I heard from my cousin that you're retiring this June. I wanted you to know there's at least one person out there doing a job they love partly because of you. Thank you for the gummy bear. Thank you for all of it.