Dear Professor,

I am incredibly sorry, but I will be unable to attend lecture in two months on Thursday, that is the first Thursday in November. I am really excited to learn from you and all 200 of my fellow classmates in the Meyerson Basement Lecture Hall, but unfortunately I have a prior engagement. I have a doctor’s appointment scheduled for then and I am unable to reschedule it. I was hoping that you could send me the notes for the lecture or refer me to another student who has them. I will of course watch the recorded lecture, but sometimes it fails or doesn’t have the blackboard notes. Plus, I really enjoy learning from you specifically, and thus feel like your notes will be the best resource for me. I love your teaching style and feel like you are really good at connecting with me, and the 350 other students in the class. It is really impressive that you are so involved with each and every one of the 600 of us. I know that the class is in no way discussion-based and so my absence will be very noticeable. I promise to send a couple of my friends who sit in the front row some extraordinarily complicated, irrelevant questions that I would like answered, so that they can loudly interrupt your lecture by asking them. Once again I beg your forgiveness for missing your recorded 1000-person lecture class, I hope my absence is not too much to bear. Oh and by the way, congrats on your Nobel Prize!

With the utmost sincerity,

Fres Hman