First day of school: Return of the Mac (again)

Its the first day of school and as usual, I wake up feeling more tired that I really should, even though I made sure to get a solid eight hours of sleep in preparation for today's classes. It looks like i'll be taking 18 credits, which seems daunting to most... but two of my classes are only once a week, so I think it should be pretty manageable. My first cartoon of the semester was published in today's paper. I do the editorial cartoons, and the topic for today's essay was "Welcome to HU, let the games begin". I drew a guy jumping into the air shouting "Freedom! hahah!". I'm not sure what the reaction to that cartoon will be, but hopefully it makes the incoming freshmen feel good about having that artificial freedom that college life provides.

The most interesting thing that has happened to me today, which I ABSOLUTELY can't ignore, is the return of my ex... again. I've mentioned before that my book, "3 weeks and a hurricane" speaks about my attempt to pick a path for myself for the near future. Then, as I wrote about my perceptions of life, (Jamaica being a huge basis), I found out that I was writing a lot about my ex girlfriend as well. (In the book, she's called "Mac"). It wasn't easy writing some parts of the book, because I was writing the book in real time, and there were some things that happened that wrenched my heart around a bit... some dodging here and there, and a few strange e-mails and restless nights. But today, I went to my first class, Telecommunications Policy and I was shocked.

My teacher looks EXACTLY like my ex-girlfriend. Well, not so dead on, but everything was there, from the skin tone, the characteristic sloping of the nose and eyes, and then the catch: Her hair. A few years ago, Mac cut off all her hair, and sported a Mohawk for a little while( I write about this fondly in my book by the way), and then, as her hair was growing back, it was a boyish fluff of brownish hair that looked a certain way. Today in class, my teacher has that exact same hair...down to the colour of the hair and the style. It was weird watching her speak, because even her body type is similar to Mac's. She was tall, with a slim figure, slightly wide hips. I couldn't tell off the bat, but she seemed as if she was of mixed ethnicity too.

There was a moment in class she spoke about teaching at a certain school in Pennslyvania, and mentioned that it was a school filled with "Rich white kids." I don't normally hear a white person say "rich white kids" so for now i'll assume she's mixed. Then, she went on to describe her career thus far, and its like seeing a future Mac sitting in front of me. She went to Africa a few times (like Mac), did research in Europe (as did Mac) and she now specializes in Telecommunications Policies that affect developing countries.

After I left the class, I headed to the school lab to type this blog... I'm not sure what to think. Is the universe trying to tell me something? Is this some weird sign that I should contact Mac? Or is the universe trying to torture me mentally, showing me that in the future Mac will be an attractive, accomplished woman who ends up teaching at a college? Oh, and here's the catch ladies and gentlemen, her husband is JAMAICAN.

I kid you not. During the whole "let's get to know each other" period which happens in every new class, when I said I was from Jamaica she smiled in a very comfortable way. "Good man." she said, "My husband's Jamaican." Then she asked me if I had dined at a certain restaurant because they serve the best Ackee and Saltfish in Dc. (Ackee and Saltfish is Jamaica's national dish). I was a little shocked. If anyone has seen "The Secret" this is a super-freaking Secret moment if there ever was one.

So let's review : She looks like an older version of my ex, down to skin tone, facial features and hair type. She likes traveling and is interesting in the development of third world nations, sorta like my ex. Then, she marries a Jamaican guy.... and the creepiest factoid of all... my ex's initials are "M P", hers are "P M"....

*twilight zone music plays in background*.

All I can say for sure is that when I looked at her, I actually felt a good feeling wash through me. It was almost like a glimpse into the future, or some distorted version of it anyways. I'm not sure what this means, so I guess I'll ignore it for now. The real Mac is in New York somewhere, having fun and living it up. My teacher's similarity to her reminds me of the nature of a phantom, it is fleeting and ghostlike...something you rarely see that probably never existed in the first place. So that's what my teacher is... a phantom.

Not real.