Mr. Boss

It has taken a while to get used to referring to yourself my your last name. When I first arrived in Manila, I met a number of students around the school campus. I kept introducing myself how I have always introduced myself. By my first name. I realized a few parents of these students had to ask me what my last name was so that their children would know what to call me. "Sorry," I'd say, "I'm Mr. Bostrom."

Sounded weird to me. The closest I've ever had to a title was when my good friend Ben Villella referred to me as Mr. Sir (an inside joke from the movie Holes). Other than that, it was always Coach Luke when I coached football. Never Mr. Bostrom.

So on the first day of school a couple weeks ago, I introduced myself to my class as Mr. Bostrom. I told the kids they could call me Mr. B if they preferred, only to find out that there was already another teacher in the Middle School who was called Mr. B. I thought the kids were going to be stuck with having to call me Mr. Bostrom until one of 8th grade Korean girl's started calling me Mr. Boss.

I have to say, I really enjoyed that one. One student of mine sometimes refers to me as Mr. Boss-me-around (jokingly, of course).  Some kids took the liberty of even leaving off the "Mr." title and just started calling me "Boss." I didn't let them go that far. We had to at least keep the title.

So here I am, 30 days into the school year, and most students and faculty now know me as Mr. Boss.


p.s. Cockroach kill count = 7