Greetings Professor,
First of all, I wanted to thank you for your consideration both last semester and this semester. I understand you have a lot of students, and you have always gone above and beyond to help me succeed in your classes. I understand the importance of student groups towards learning how to interact with others and that it’s mandatory.
In regards to tomorrow’s student pairs, I have one quick question.
I was thinking about when I was in school two or three decades ago. Back then, I knew a lot of students and their parents. In my humble opinion, there are a lot of students and their parents that would not want their child being in pairs with street homeless people. My parents would not have approved of my brother and I being in groups with street homeless people.
I’m not sure if there is anyone who would approve of their child being placed in pairs at school with street homeless people. Albeit, I would like the decision to be up to the students if possible.
I just wanted to go on the record and say I am not embarrassed at all about being street homeless. I’ve been homeless for five years or longer. My main goal is to get a roof back over my head. I’m past the point of embarrassment.
The reason I bring this up is that it would make me feel more comfortable if you ask the class if anyone doesn’t mind being in a pair with a street homeless person. Of course, it’s your class and I’ll gladly follow any instructions you provide. I just thought I’d mention it to you here.
I’m respectfully going to let the person in my pair tomorrow know that I live in the street during the interview. This way if someone sees me around town sleeping on a subway platform or something like that, they aren’t surprised.
I’m used to being street homeless, although it gets a little wild living in the streets of Midtown Manhattan, especially these days. I plan to use the writing skills I’ve learned in your classes to share my experiences one day.
Even though I’ve made it very clear that I would have preferred to maintain my privacy from students, I assure you that I will act like I’m on an interview to get a job at The New York Times tomorrow. During the student pairs, I will be concise, serious, professional, and courteous.
Thank you and have a great day.
Ever upward,
Mark Pine
