Mr. Proud. Proudy. P-Dawg. Tommy Boy.

[em08]

Today I got thinking about Mr. Proud. Some of you knew him from marching band, and some of you knew him from middle school band. But Ashley and I knew him as a teacher, friend, role model, and so much more. I remember my first day of 7th grade band..we had heard there was a new band teacher there. We all walked in and sat down..he stepped onto his podium thing..also known as the ("i think i'm importent stand") and he said, "I'm Mr. Proud and I know you're all new here, but so am I..this is pretty scary huh? Yup. I'm scared too..but we'll get through it together." And at that moment I knew he would be more than a band teacher to us. To some. Ashley and I became friends, and then..we became close with Mr. Proud. I remember we went to the mall and got those sticker pictures taken, we went back to band monday and made him put it on his ID tag. He did. And it stayed there till the day he left in May of our 8th grade year. Many were close to him, but not like we were. We never wanted to sound like we were "taking" him from any of you..but in a way we did. I remember the day Steve Woolson died like it was yesterday. Some things are blurry, but I know I'll always remember that Mr. Proud let Ashley and I stay with him in the band room..he really put things into perspective for us. He cared. That's really all we were looking for. Mr. Proud was one of those teachers that feels your age..his greeting was usually, "Great, double trouble." We usually snapped back with a joking "shut up proud." He didn't yell like other teachers would have..he just replied with "why don't you shut up!" And it was nice. I remember Ashley and I were in lessons around April. I don't remember why it was just the two of us..but I think it was because the other two 1st clarinets were sick that day. He told us not to put our clarinets together, and we knew something was wrong. He told us he was leaving. He asked us to keep it secret, and we swore we would. But we just sat there, eyes wide..taking in this horrible information he was giving us. All we could say was "why, why are you leaving us Mr. Proud" He was shocked..he knew we were upset because we NEVER called him Mr. Proud. He explained that it was best for him and out of his control. He told us that he would e-mail and always remember us. He would tell his students about us everyday. He said that he would miss us. And that's when we broke, Ashley and I cried..we cried like we meant it. And we did mean it. We couldn't bare the thought of us going on to high school without him to fall back on when we needed him. We went out and bought him a bunch of really funny things for Georgia. But after we gave them to him, we became serious. We gave him a picture of us for him to take and a copy to the lyrics "Why Georgia." He laughed but was saddened. We were about to leave for our next class when we turned and ran at him with a hug. He was surprised, but I think he knew at that moment just how much he would be missed. He unfourtanetly never wrote, or e-mailed. We really don't even know if he's happy there. I think that we can both say that he made a big impact on our life. And we're not sad, because we know we're lucky to have known him. And so are all of you.

Now don't think this entry was just to make everyone sad..becasue I swear it wasn't. It was just a time of remembering. It was just some things I was thinking about today.