Facebook can be a scary, scary thing for teachers. Last year, I made the mistake of telling my 11th graders that once they graduated, they could friend me on Facebook. Mind you, I never had anything I needed to hide from them, I just didn't think it was appropriate for us to be "friends" while they were still in the high school building. However, my staunch refusal to accept requests until the day they strolled across the graduation stage and snatched their diplomas made them think that I had some fascinating stuff posted on my profile. I can only imagine what they were picturing in their little heads.
Anyway, they moved from my class on to their senior year, and I kind of hoped that they had all forgotten about it. Boy, was I wrong. It wasn't two days after graduation before the requests started rolling in. Some of them were not surprising... I had become quite close with a lot of the students in that class. Other requests were kind of a shock, because some of them hadn't said more than three words to me in the two years that we had known each other, and one of them I had even turned down for a college letter of recommendation because I genuinely wouldn't be able to say anything positive about his work ethic. Nice kid and all, but... well.
I don't mean to make myself sound more popular or cooler than I really am (because I'm not), but apparently these kids were really interested in my life. I got all of these messages from them asking where they could find the pictures of me shotgunning beers and smoking joints. Listen, kids, you're not going to find those pictures because they do not exist. I don't know where you got the idea that I am a wild party animal, but you are sadly mistaken. I go home, do some work, cook and eat dinner with The Mister, have a glass of wine and usually pass out around 10. I do not throw raging keg parties, I do not perform ritual animal sacrifices, and my drug of choice is caffeine (in the form of coffee and sometimes chocolate). I don't know why you didn't believe me all those times I told you, "I am not cool."
