Six years ago when I first started teaching, I was nervous as hell on my first Back to School Night.I didn't know anybody, parents or students, and I was the new guy in town. So there I am meeting students and parents and this guy about 6'6" and close to 300 pounds walks in with his daughter, a new 5th grader, wearing a Georgia t-shirt. We introduce ourselves and I mention that I am a Gator fan. His daughter wrinkles up her nose at me and Dad just laughs a little.

The school year starts and his daughter, I called her A-Rob, quickly becomes one of my favorites. She starts nearly every day by giving me a hug. About this time that year she gave me a little gift box with a very nice message on top. When I opened the box it was a homemade craft where you melt plastic pellets into shapes and designs. The one she gave me was a blue square with an orange G in the middle of it. When I asked her if the G stood for Georgia, she said "No, it stands for Gators!" She also attached a magnet on the back. It was a very touching gift.

As the year moves along, I find out that her dad played football at Georgia under Vince Dooley. He was a lineman which would explain his size. I also got to be friends with A-Rob's older sister and parents.

Since I was teaching 5th and 6th grade at the time, I had her again for 6th grade. That year I held a March Madness activity that incorporated some U.S. Geography. To prepare, I decorated my door in orange and blue and placed the logos of all the SEC teams on my door. She said she didn't like the one I had for Georgia and offered to get me a new one.

The next day I get the beautifully drawn Bulldog head logo drawn by her sister. A-Rob was very proud of it because, even though her sister drew it, she got to color it in. I laminated it and hung it proudly on my door with the other logos, even if it was bigger than all the others.

Fast forward a year and I move up to teach 7th and 8th grade whileA-Rob moves up in grade as well. I move to my new room and and am trying to think how to decorate it. A-Rob tells me I should hang up her Bulldog, and I agree. I hang it on one of my cabinet doors.

As the years pass and she moves on to 8th grade, I am getting to know her and her family better and better. That happens after 4 years. When we take our 8th grade class trip to Washington D.C., I am assigned a room with her dad. Yep, a Gator and a Bulldog rooming together.

As graduation time gets closer, I know how much I am going to miss A-Rob and her classmates that I had for 4 years. Two years later and I still miss her and seeing her mom and dad. But because she meant so much to me, I still have her hand drawn Bulldog on my cabinet. And I have no problem looking at it every day and telling kids, when they need something to look in the Bulldog cabinet.

So while rest of y'all remember drunk UGA fans barking, yellg, getting in your faces and generally acting like a-holes, I'll remember all the great times I had with A-Rob.