I just finished teaching a course on History of Medicine from Antiquity to 1500 at Ryerson University, a job I started two days after I returned from a 3-week research trip to London. Having very little time to prepare, I was incredibly nervous at first, especially as medicine in antiquity wasn’t exactly my strongest subject.

Now the course is finished, I’m incredibly touched by the many messages my students have passed on to me, thanking me for a great course–in personal emails, at the last page of their exam booklets, even in essays. These little messages have really made my day–and even more so, students telling me that they’ve really enjoyed taking a history course. This makes me feel great as an instructor. Especially since I wasn’t too happy about my first time teaching (History of Biology at UoT) and thought the students pretty much hated me & my teaching style.

Anyways, reading these messages made me appreciate teaching and the many wonderful teachers I’ve had over the years. I’ve always been grateful for those rare teachers that really pushed me to go beyond my potential, who saw something in me that I’ve never really paid attention to. Even though at first I didn’t think I would like teaching or even wanted to teach, I’m glad I found a new love in it. Totally looking forward to doing it again.

So I just wanted to thank once again, to all of my teachers past, present, and future.