As spring break comes to an end I suddenly am thinking of all of things I need to do that I haven’t, or wanted to do that I didn’t. Yet, I am grateful for what I have done with the time! One thing I had lots of fun doing over spring break was hanging with one of my best friends!

We went to breakfast at our favorite coffee shop. I enjoyed walking her soon to be 2 year old up the stairs… we counted with each step… 1, 2, 1, 2. Gotta start them off early!

I had a jalapeno cheddar bagel with jalapeno cheddar cream cheese, a twice baked almond croissant, and a hot plain latte.

Then we went to Hobby Lobby, where I went to look for new cabinet knobs for the sewing machine I inherited from my late grandmother (we called her Gmoma; I made this up from her previous name of Grandmoma based on a text-talk inside joke I happened upon in around 2010… back when I thought text-talk was cool). I didn’t find any knobs, and decided to cover the existing knobs in gold rub n buff (seriously a cool product).

My friend lives in an adjacent town about 30 minutes from where I live, so I don’t as often see people that I know when I am out and about there. However, as I entered Hobby Lobby, I thought I recognized one of the workers, but I couldn’t place her.

My friend had her two daughters with her; “M” who will be turning 2 soon (you remember, we walked up the steps together) and “K” who just turned 6. M found a dinosaur stuffed animal that she couldn’t seem to put down, so I decided to get it for her. Later when we returned to the car, K and I discussed how the red dinosaur with orange spikes matched M’s outfit very nicely.

As we approached the register, I saw that familiar worker and caught a glimpse of her name tag: “Giselle.” It all came flooding back to me–this girl was a student in the 8th grade class that I student taught about 6 years prior.

Once I realized who she was, I said “Excuse me, this may seem like a strange question, but where did you attend middle school?” She confirmed, and I asked if she remembered me, and she did.

I do consider myself to have a pretty good memory, but I am certain that I would not recognize every student that was a part of the many classes I student taught in 8th grade all of those years ago. I remember her because she made an impact on me, and I found that day that I also made an impact on her.

She had just moved to the United States from a Spanish-speaking country and I decided to write a letter home to her parents welcoming them to our country and welcoming their daughter to school. The next day Giselle returned with a bouquet of flowers wrapped tissue paper with a note attached written by her parents thanking me for my letter. I was so touched that I think I almost cried. I went home to share this story with my then fiancé, who was also in ESL in school with Spanish as his first language, and he took a picture of me with those flowers.

“I still have that note you wrote in my room at home!” Giselle said. We talked a bit more and I learned that she is studying at the local community college.

As I left Hobby Lobby, I thought more and more about the impact that we as teachers have on our students and the impact that students have on us as teachers. When in doubt, be kind. Be welcoming. When a thought pops into your mind about saying a little something extra to be kind, do it. Even if you’re not a teacher and you’re just at the grocery store! Any time, and any where… always be kind. You never know what kind of impact you will make.