A Feel-Good Moment At The Local Jiffy Lube

I stopped at the local Jiffy Lube to have an oil change today, as there's no school, so I actually had some extra time for such things.
I sat grading papers in the waiting room until an employee called me out to go over what they were going to do to my car.  When I returned, someone had taken my seat, and I had to move to the other side of the waiting room.
I continued to grade papers for a while, until a guy's phone rang.  I looked at him, then up -- at the poster on the wall above him.  It held four photos of the Jiffy Lube 2012 scholarships.  And one of the faces was very familiar.
"That looks like [name deleted]!" I thought.  And I quickly checked for her name.  As her name is an unusual one, there could be no doubt that this was the same girl who'd been in my 9GT class 2 years ago.
I pulled out my camera (not a phone, a camera), but I had to ask the guy below the photo to move for me.  And that necessitated my explaining to him, "That's my former student up there on the poster.  I want a picture."
Within a couple of minutes, 3 other customers and 2 Jiffy Lube employees had stopped over to look at the girl and listen to me say how bright she was.  They were impressed.

Yeah, even with all the hate in the media about teachers and with our state legislature's continual attempts to punish and control us, there are still a few perks to this job.
Sure, it's only Jiffy Lube, and it isn't a huge scholarship.  But she's MY kid.  Mine.  I taught her.
And I'm proud of it.