Thank a Teacher

I was grateful today for the opportunity to thank a teacher. For several reasons. One, because it is the week of T of course. And two, my husband is a teacher and I know first hand how dedicated most teachers are. And lastly, because it seems that presently teachers and the teaching profession are getting unfairly beat up in the media on almost a daily basis.

The opportunity came I was sitting on the beach today, away on vacation with my family. My husband and the boys had gone back to the house leaving me blissfully alone with the waves and my book. While I was there I overheard the woman next to me talking. It was apparent she was a teacher doing some preparations for the the classroom right there in her beach chair. She had several bags bulging with papers and she was busy making stars decorated with her student's pictures for the classroom. As she was cutting and pasting I heard her commenting about the names. “Oh this is an interesting spelling!” And “I've never had a student named Athena before!” It was apparent that she was very much looking forward to the start of the school year.

As I packed up my chair and book and headed back to the house I stopped by to talk with with her. It felt a little awkward at first, but I was motivated and pushed by my commitment to kindness (or at least  by the commitment that I had to write about SOMETHING). I said that I could not help overhearing her conversation and was cheered by her obvious excitement and enthusiasm. I thanked her for being a teacher and then her mother, who was sitting next to her, chimed in that she was a teacher too. We had a nice chat about teachers, teaching, politics and unexpectedly, about my sister-in-law who, as it turned out, the woman's mom knew from years back. While this wasn't totally as out of left field as it may seem since the house we are currently staying in belongs to my sister-in-law, who is graciously allowing us to spend some time here, I was pleasantly surprised that my act of kindness had morphed into a talk about family connections.  It was a fun  to hear about my brother's wife "back in the day" and about her family as well.

As I walked back to the house I was looking forward to the calling my sister-in-law with the news that I had met a long time family friend, and felt contentment that my effort to push past my comfort zone in the name of kindness with rewarded with such a happy unexpected surprise.