It is strange being recognized when you are not expecting it. I have always been told I am "difficult to forget" (I am not sure if that is a good or a bad thing.) Once, when I was in high school I was recognized while walking around the Mall Of America. As many of you know, I ran my own bagel business in high school which got to be pretty big. At one point I was walking around the mall when a girl shouted to me across the hallway "Hey you the bagel guy right?" This was strange because I didn't recognize this girl and wasn't even wearing one of my bagel shirts. I respond: "yeah I am." and she says "shit... and I don't even go to that school."
so that was strange.
What is more strange is the kind of selective celebrity that comes with having a niche community. As many of you know I am fairly into Mock Trial. What many of you may not know is that I am not even close to being the only one. Mock trial is the single largest non-athletic intercollegiate activity (in terms of competitor base) with an excess of 3,500 active competitors in a given year. There are names on the mock trial circuit that, while not household names to the common family, draw as much respect as one can get from the right person. Names like Daniel Young, Lawrence Hilton and Amanda Bonn probably aren't familiar to you, but to my people they might as well be carved into Mount Rushmore. what is even stranger is that I am arguably one of those names.
I always considered myself very good, but I never put myself in league with those people. In the American Mock Trial Association I think I am well known and respected, but not revered like those folks. That is why coming back to Minnesota was so strange. I wrote a while back about how I am coaching high school and was mentioned on a kids blog. What I didn't know at the time was how far reaching that blog was. I was approached about a week ago by a good looking girl on the bus ride over to School. When she came up and started talking to me I thought "alright I hit the jackpot... lets see where this goes." Then she asked me "are you [the Hamborgler]?" I said that I was and then I found out why she looked so familiar. she had been on a mock trial team I competed against in high school and was now coaching the very team that beat School B for the state championship. We chatted and I said I was coaching School B now and she said "yeah I know." Apparently the fact that I was now on board as a coach was big news in the state, at least to her team.
But then I found out it wasn't isolated. I got an E-mail from a coach of another team asking me if I would help him coach. What was strange was that he started out the mail by saying "I understand from the blogosphere that you will be working with [School B next year.] So there it was. For some reason everyone in the state is reading this kids blog and now I am a local celebrity. What was really weird was that this guy was even offering to PAY me to coach his team. Unfortunately I felt I had to decline, I didn't want to break my fiduciary duties to School B and coaching someone who might eventually face them would be poor form. I am excited to see where this trip will take me next.
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