Greetings my dear editor:

I am an alumnus and currently go by No. 05578460000. Yet, not too long ago, the class of ?05 knew me as Chris White. It is not easy being a number on a long list, but the last two years of college have been far from impersonal.

Knowing the president of a local university on a first name basis and having dinner at the homes of multiple professors, is not something to be taken for granted. Yet, this is not the first time I have encountered such a personal community of learning.

As an insecure and, thus, overly critical teenager, it was easy to overlook the significance of our close-knit high school. In retrospect, though, the value of teachers who saw me as a person, rather than just another line on a roll sheet, is immeasurable.

A road trip to San Francisco for a Fremont drama competition stands out in particular. There were four men, one car, and no distinctions between students and teacher. By the end of the trip we had sang songs, anguished over women, philosophized about God, and lost our voices at a phenomenal hockey game.

To be fair, some days the faculty were dreadfully boring and, at times, they would lose themselves in authoritarian rants. Be that as it may, their availability and educational standards were invaluable.

Success in college has required a personal commitment to learning, but it also depended upon those who taught me, even when I did not want to learn. So from one friend to many, thank you all.

Chris White, a former Feather staff writer, is a sophomore majoring in political science and biblical studies; Chris is also a paragon scholar at Fresno Pacific University