Keep in touch, I told my smiling students that final day of Music Journalism classes.

I meant it. We’d just spent a Le Moyne College semester exploring the glory of words and music together. I hoped they’d gotten as much out of our collective efforts as their teacher had. I was the one who shined a light on the nitty and the gritty of my work covering the Syracuse music scene and then asked them to show me they understood.

They wrote. And wrote. And wrote some more. In class. Between classes. During vacation. They picked CDs and concerts to review and music world figures to interview. I invited musicians and music world figures into the classroom to explain what’s what.

The students knew my email. A couple friended me on Facebook and linked in our social networks on LinkedIn.

This week, Brandt Ranj got in touch. Ranj was one of two sophomores among upperclassmen in my baker’s dozen back in 2010. He finished all academic requirements on Wednesday and was ready to fully enjoy those delicious days of achievement until commencement. Would I like to get lunch?

We met at the Brooklyn Pickle, just down the hill and a couple miles from the campus he’d spent the last four years. Even though he’s a Long Island guy, Ranj said he’d never ventured to the sandwich shop that’s a safe haven for us ex-pat downstaters.

Ranj arrived wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt.

Bravo. He loved sharing his love of rock in those class sessions. Still does. As we ate our hot pastrami, he adroitly dropped in the artists Ray Davies and Jerry Garcia and Paul McCartney with Vampire Weekend. The Beacon. Westbury Music Hall. Jones Beach. I brought up The Lumineers, Mumford and Sons and fun. with Bruce Springsteen and Steely Dan. The Westcott Theater. Lost Horizon. The Landmark.

Armed with his new degree in journalism, Ranj is hoping to find work and an exciting life in San Francisco. He’s looking for a job writing about the tech world. Music, he’d decided, can still be enjoyed thoroughly in life and perhaps written about on a freelance basis.

Good plan, young man.

Go west and do well.

And, of course, keep in touch.