Honoring Mrs. Honoredez

Our history teacher in first year high school was also our school librarian. She was hated by everyone because she always gave "coffee break", meaning a 10-item quiz every meeting, before classes began or right before classes ended. A quiz which had 30-second answer time per item.

But I loved her despite my inconsistent quiz results. It was not her fault after all. I loved her because she was very warm and welcoming every time I went to the library. I was borrowing Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys every other day and Mrs. Honoredez recommended to me the better stories in the series. She also advised me to prepare a notebook where I could list the words I've encountered but did not understand. It will help me build my vocabulary, she said and it did.

Subconsciously, she may have been one of the reasons I become a librarian. Our library have very good books most probably because our school was run by the Irish (James Joyce and all) Sisters, the St. Columban Sisters. (Some may wonder what has being an Irish to do with it, well plenty because I've been sent to another high school in another place, run by another order of nuns and we did not have that many books in the library. The library was bare) I do not know if she was a trained librarian but as much as I can remember she may have been because she always materialized at my side every time I was in front of those shelves of books, asking me what I was looking for. And if my memory is correct it was she who discouraged me from the books with pictures and drawings, it doesn't helped the imagination was what she said. The only pictures she encouraged me to look at are the portraits of the people she discussed in history class, and she gave me the encyclopedia for this which I was so afraid to handle because of the thin and fragile paper. I was so afraid that if I accidentally tear those pages I may not be able to come to the library again. The library was my sanctuary.

Most of all I loved her because when PTA came she told my parents that I was a good and diligent student (although after my parents told me this, I had to consult the dictionary first before the diligent part sank in, I was that ignorant). What Mrs. Honoredez said was really absolutely high praise from one of the teachers because I was following in the footsteps of a consistent first honor while I never even made it to top 10 of the class.