Last week after class and lunch with friends, I headed to my office in Kerckhoff, but no one was there when I arrived and I forgot my office keys in my car. I left Kerckoff and walked back toward Lot 4. As I crossed Bruin Walk, the most guero appearing Mexican I’ve ever seen called out to me, “hey, Cindy!”

I looked across to see Luis, a third-year student I had counseled in 2003-2004 during his first year at UCLA. Although I hadn’t seen Luis in several months, or even a year, he greeted me as if he still saw me all the time in my old office in the Student Activities Centers when he would come in for peer counseling sessions.

He called me his counselor and I corrected him, “no, I was your counselor.”

Luis argued, “you’re still my counselor. I’ll always see you as my counselor.”

I smiled. Luis and I then began talking about my aunt and his parents, who are good friends. The rest of the discussion could have been excerpted from a peer counseling session, but he was asking questions too. How are your classes? What’s your graduate program like? Did you win your election? How is work?

I didn’t even need to review my notes to jog my memory about Luis, his major, family, or his old job. It all came back to me. Luis told me his GPA and admitted that it had decreased slightly since he was a first year. He also talked about the progress in his major and two minors. Halfway through his third year, he was already thinking about graduate school. We talked about what kind of program he would like to do and what he could do to better prepare besides his current coursework. I remembered that several good friends participated in an excellent summer program for students interested in public policy or urban planning master’s programs. Most of the people I know who went through the program were now in graduate school at places like University of Michigan and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. I remembered a former student two years my junior who had attended the program as well. Coincidentally, Luis also knew her and we headed over to her office nearby to speak to her about the program and application date.

I had several students I really connected with as a counselor. Many of them — especially the ones who entered as first years — are still on campus and I run into them a few times a week as I go about my daily routine. Sometimes they make me feel old, especially as I think about the fact that a lot of the ones I first counseled will be graduating this spring. Damn… that’s what they’re supposed to do, but why does it feel so weird?

I loved counseling and working with college students. When I left the position, I mainly looked back at the positive aspects. I still choose to remember those a lot more, because about 4 years after I started the position, I don’t remember the frustration, but I do remember how good it was to work with students who still continue to see me as their counselor and their friend.