Me, as a teenager, and a note of advice I wrote to future AP History students
Today, I went back to the city where I grew up to honor the legacy of Mr. Denny Lynch, my Modern Civilizations West and AP US History teacher, Brainstormers (think “Quiz Bowl”) and Academic Decathlon coach and a dear friend of our family’s.
I don’t return “home” to Santa Clarita very often, although I currently live just over 60 miles away from the house I grew up in. I didn’t ever exactly feel like I fit in there; I felt like I had particular roles to play and wanted to fill those roles perfectly to find the sense of belonging I longed for so deeply. After the sudden death of my mom in my junior year, I struggled so much internally, but let very little of my struggle emerge externally. It was one of the hardest periods of my life, but very few people saw that struggle. I cope(d) by compartmentalizing, by putting all my efforts into what I could control and where I could make others proud.
During this period of my life, academics and school saved me.
It was the one consistent safe haven when everything else seemed so uncertain.
My teachers in my junior and senior years became like a second family for me. They loved me when I felt completely unlovable. They saw something special in me and encouraged me. As much as I wanted to do well to honor my mom’s legacy, I also felt deeply connected to the teachers who surrounded me during that time, particularly to Mr. Lynch.
Mr. Lynch showed his care through his humor, his consistency and his brilliance. He had been my brother’s history teacher eleven years prior and so I grew up waiting to be in his class, wanting to build on our family’s legacy (or possibly redeem it). My brother was a great essayist in AP US History, but has always been terrible at multiple choice quizzes. He jokes that he almost “wrecked the curve” in his class by only answering 67/100 multiple choice questions — the ones he was sure of or could get down to two answers (after which he would choose the longer answer as Mr. Lynch taught him).
Growing up in my brother’s shadow, his junior by a decade, I nearly idolized some of his teachers and hoped desperately that I would get a chance to have some of them, after going to his open house events and meeting them. As soon as I got into high school, before I could even take Mr. Lynch’s courses, I applied to do “Brainstormers,” a quiz bowl type game with team members from each grade level of high school. I was on the “Brainstormers” team all four years of high school, and in my senior year, we finally defeated our rival high school which had taken the “Brainstormers” cup for 10 consecutive years.
Brainstormers championship picture, my senior year
By the time I got into Mr. Lynch’s courses, he knew me well. Of course, he had known me since I was barely in kindergarten, but I had established a strong academic record of my own and was a curious student who loved to learn. I loved learning history from Mr. Lynch. He taught me a lot of facts (because, well, there were a lot of facts in history), but more importantly, he taught me (what I later came to know as) historical thinking skills. Mr. Lynch taught me to think critically and carefully, to read texts, to analyze images and maps, to think about change over time, cause and effect, to write in ways that help to build arguments from evidence, to think about things from different perspectives. In many ways, Mr. Lynch shaped my future in the social sciences and my future as an educator.
My AP US History class
In addition to Brainstormers & classes, Mr. Lynch also served as the Academic Decathlon advisor for our school. I was in Academic Decathlon my junior and senior years. During one of the seasons, Mr. Lynch was out with a serious medical issue. We still carried on with zero period meetings and practice sessions. We wanted to continue to train because we wanted to make him proud. His deep care for our team helped us to push ourselves to be better.
Academic Decathlon newspaper photo
Today was Mr. Lynch’s memorial service. For me, it was a homecoming to celebrate his home going. We share the same faith and the same belief that we will one day see one another after this life. Today, we were reminded, during his service of Jesus’s words that he goes to prepare a place for us. Mr. Lynch joins my mom in heaven. I know that they are preparing a place for their families who they so deeply cherished. In my video tribute to Mr. Lynch, I couldn’t say all of this, so I said what was most important to me, which was that in the early days after I lost my mom, his care (and that of his dear wife Linda) helped see me through some of my darkest times. His belief in who I was helped me to believe in myself when I felt so deeply alone.
Mr. Lynch was many things to many people. He was many things to me. I feel his loss so deeply and hope that my continued work honors his legacy. In another part of the tribute video played at today’s service, Mr. Lynch’s grandson Marco said that his “Granpa” had always told him that he should be the best at whatever he chose to do. That was the standard Mr. Lynch held us all to. It wasn’t about doing all the things, it was about choosing well and wisely and doing our best, being our best.
I love Mr. Lynch deeply. I love his family and his heart, his commitment and his dedication, his love for others and his humor. I continue to love him even though he is not here with us in body anymore.
In his yearbook from my senior year, I came by to write a note. It said this:
“Dear Mr. Sir–What can I say that would possibly come close to summing up the experiences you’ve allowed me to have through Brainstormers, Acadec, Mod Civ West, and of course AP US History? I just have to thank you for putting up with me and allowing me to learn from your wisdom. It has been invaluable.
Thank you for giving me a solid foundation, in both education and life. Please come visit me at Berkeley and keep in touch (I mean it, or I’ll have to call the gods down on you from Olympus to ask you unrealistic Super Quiz questions!).
Be nice to Mrs. Lynch and try to keep spontaneous and don’t be like Martin (Arrowsmith) was with poor Leora. I love you and good luck next year w/o me.
Love, Betina Hsieh “B-girl” /96 E.R.”
I benefit from the legacy that Mr. Lynch has left for me in every student message that has a nerdy inside joke, with every student that tells me I have made a difference for them, with every student who I keep in touch with many years after they were a student in my class.
I was blessed to have teachers that loved me so deeply. I was blessed to have Mr. Lynch and his family in my life. I am so grateful today to have celebrated his life. While it is hard for me to revisit that time, I know now that it was not all enshrouded in darkness, that there was light that continues to shine through me today.
I hope that you are making light and community in heaven right now, Mr. Lynch. In fact, I’m sure you are.
