Respect for Your Elders

It's finally happened.  I received a note from a high school senior addressed to Mrs. Vigil.  I am still a little in shock.

 

Sure, teachers are used to this kind of respect, young and not as young.  However, I have not worked in a setting where younger people were encouraged to call me Ms. Ford or now Mrs. Vigil.  The school in Jersey City encouraged the students to call teachers by their first names, though a number would still call me Miss Tori.  And in all my work in Denver, I literally worked with over a hundred people older than me, mostly retirees, and I was on a first name basis with all of them.  I suppose it is because of my familiarity and comfort around older people, or maybe I am just a disrespectful little brat for calling people by their first names. 

 

Anyhow, I wasn't prepared for "Mrs. Vigil".  Somehow the name connotes someone else - maybe my sister-in-law who teaches high school or my mother-in-law or Granny.  Or maybe I just need a little more time to grow into the title.