2/19: a visitor

My office hours were unexpectedly busy this afternoon.  While I was talking to the last student, someone in a suit looked into my office and then sat down in the waiting area outside it.  His face looked familiar; I figured he must be an alum, but I couldn't place him on the spot.  When I finished with my student, the visitor came in and immediately introduced himself.  As soon as his name was halfway out of his mouth I realized who he was.  He graduate in 2006 or so, and since then he's gotten a PhD in Biology and a good job in a lab--he was passing through town because of a business meeting in Little Rock, so he thought he'd stop by.  He thanked me in a really sweet and genuine way for something I did for him at the very end of his undergraduate career.  It was a thank-you that was all the better for being a decade after the fact (though I'm sure he thanked me at the time, too).  I second- and third-guess myself so very much, and I'm not always confident that I'm having a good effect on people's lives.  I was grateful for the reassurance in this case at least.