She was a student in my very first class EVER....18 years ago.
Recently, she was going through some of her childhood things that she had saved and came across several books that had little notes written in them from different times in her life. One of them was a book I had given her at Christmas with a personalized note written on the inside cover. Among the childhood treasures she had chosen to save from family and other loved ones, was my book. MY book. In her own words, she saved "what she thought was important...what memories were worth preserving." The memory of her time in my class was worth preserving to her.
Little did she know that the Sunday evening she tagged me in that post would be the start to a very challenging week of teaching for me. But coming back to her words at the end of every long day that week kept me going.
When I felt like I could not possibly be making a difference, she reminded me that I did. And that I am.
When I felt like my role as a teacher was less about teaching reading and more about teaching children about responsibility and respect and gratitude, she reminded me that those lessons are equally important.
When I felt like I could not crawl out of bed at 5:30am for one. more. day, she reminded me that my presence at school was important. And is important.
I can't box up her words and save them like she did with the book I gave her. But I can come back to her Facebook post. Because to me, that is an important memory worth preserving.
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