In this week’s edition of Throwback Thursday you will get an insight of one of the most popular chemistry teacher at Mansfield, Mr. Michael Lujan.

What was high school like for you?

It was fun. Probably too much fun. I was more of a troublemaker then anything. I was a troublemaker for my band director for sure. Taking advanced classes I felt like I was doing the right thing, but I always felt like I was kind of in over my head,but I had enough support friend wise and teacher wise that I kind of handled it all, AP stuff ya know?

What kind of things did you do in high school?

I was in band. That was about it, besides student council, but that took up a lot of my time with practices and stuff.

What type of student would you have described yourself as?

I was definitely a nerd, but I was also the guy who wore different colored shoes. I was always trying to be different somehow with my clothes. It drove my mom and dad crazy because I would try to be different at any cost. That it was just too normal to just dress normal-I told my wife the other day as an example- I was thinking about the idea on how to be different, if people wear jeans everyday but wear a different shirt why don’t I flip it around, wear a t-shirt everyday, the same plain t-shirt, but wear different pants everyday. It was dumb, but that just how my mind was working. To me, I was always trying to find a way to be different somehow and go against the grain and that was really tough for my parents because I was so weird.

What made you want to become a teacher?

I had three friends that graduated college and were immediately teachers-they were band directors actually- and I had another friend, the fourth friend, who was also becoming a teacher a year or two later, and to me I thought you know I had so much in common with them that I looked into it after the fact. You know I graduated with a science degree, thinking I could do something with science, but laboratory works very menial and not very productive and not very, it’s very hard to get ahead there, pay wasn’t very good. So I said “ya know, this sounds like something I could do,” so I made a phone call to a friend who was in science teaching and I said “do you think this is something I can do,” she goes “absolutely, you would be good at it.” That kind of thing and her opinion mattered enough for me to actually just go ahead and go with it. I already had my masters degree so I just did an alternate certification, and that was something that I don’t regret at all.

Why teach chemistry?

I did biology at first, I have a biology major, and I innicoally started teaching all three. I did biology, chemistry and physics. It was a really bad first year but then shortly there after, my third year in San Antonio I taught nothing but chemistry and it was better. And I liked it a lot better then biology, and then when I got here it was me as a chemistry teacher only, so I got hired on, and so it’s something I wouldn’t look back on.