A pat on my shoulder

I received a mere pat on my shoulder by this one lecturer. When I first met her during our first class a few semesters back, I must say things didn't really start off nicely.

Unlike most of us, I did a diploma in tourism before going for a degree in sports science. And this lecturer remembers me for that. She referred me as the tourism kid. And yes, once the lecturer know you, they will mark you. Mark, and pinpoint you.

I'm sure all of you are aware that us tourism just don't learn about the energy system, ATP-PC, enzymes, and all those biological stuff. Well, she said that. And I felt humiliated and oh-so-down. Yes, us tourism don't learn those things but I'm here so instead of looking down at me why don't you support me???
She would always ask if I could understand the subject, because according to her tourism don't learn about these... I have other friends who are in the same boat as I am; fine art, mass communication, IT. She would go, "Where's Masscomm? Where's Tourism? Fine Art?"

Hi. My name is Tourism.

But they don't get as much attention as I did because they kept quiet. They would just go, "How would I know? I have no basic in science whatsoever, so it's normal if I don't know"

But I fought back.

I tell you, I rarely study before each class. Like, study the subject like you should always do.
But for her class, I would always study first.

The first time she asked me a question, I answered in right in her face. Because she kept quiet after that as if she was stunned. An unexpected answer from a tourism kid, huh?

I used to dislike her. Hate is a strong word. I dislike her a bit, for looking down at me. But somehow I turned it into something positive. I looked at it at a positive way. Well maybe she cared about me. Think positive, and slowly the feeling of dislike decreased... Towards the end of semester, she already knew my name. But she still remembered me as the tourism kid.

This semester, she taught us again. During first class, she searched for me.
I gave her a copy of the magazine in which I was featured in. Next thing I know, a copy of the article is up on our faculty announcement board.

It is just a simple pat on the shoulder, but it really means a lot to me. I gained this huge motivation. As if she's supporting me and saying that, you can do it. I believe you can do it, tourism kid.