Little Things Do Mean A Lot

It's the little things that make us smile isn't it? 

I mean, I'd smile big over a new car or a new piece of furniture, don't get me wrong.

But the little things as a teacher, are the things that make my heart go beat - beat!

I've been doing a lot of cleaning in my room for the last month (more about that in a later post).

And I came across some short paragraphs that some previous students wrote. I mean . . . these kids are now about 34 years old. . . that's how "previous" they were. They wrote these paragraphs when they were 2nd graders in my class. The topic was When I'm 100 Years Old. . . .. 

I have found a few of those 2nd graders on Facebook and have enjoyed keeping up with their lives, marriages, jobs, and kids. 

I shared a few of these short stories with a few of them on FB recently. They were a hoot! I heard back from them and they wanted to know who else I had. I listed the remaining students. Those little buggers tracked down many of them, so I had to share more of these stories. They all really enjoyed them and were so surprised that I had still kept their writings. (I didn't tell them that many teachers do this and I have a lot more of other students writings besides their class!)

Then one of the students is not a "friend" on FB, but I certainly call her a friend in real life. So I sent her a private message and shared her story with her. She was very touched by it. In fact she admitted that she didn't have many things (if any at all!) from her childhood and that this short story was a blessing for her. Her mom didn't save things and she felt sad that she didn't have memories like this. My heart took a leap! 

Now I knew. . . . THAT'S WHY I KEEP THESE KINDS OF THINGS! For 26 years I have stored those writings, moved to a new town 30 miles away, moved to two different buildings and did NOT throw them away. 

I have made arrangements to drop these writings off to this young lady's house soon. Plus, I'm sure I have a yearbook that I could give her from those years also.

So when you're thinking of tossing some of those precious things, take a breath and think about if it could make an impact on someone's life someday. . . You just never know.