In the spirit of the season:
The best gift I ever received was from my 8th grade English teacher. She gave each student a word that reminded her of the student.
She told us about the gift ahead of time, and I'll admit I was nervous. I was the new kid. Although the kids at my new school were approximately 876,000 times nicer and more wholesome than the suburban, nouveau-riche assholes of HMS (my old school), I was still the new kid, ya know? Had a few run-ins with mean girls and, admittedly, I cried in the bathroom a few times and maybe in the quad, and I might have burst into tears right in the middle of class (to the pure joy, I'm sure, of a few classmates.)
Also, I was not exactly "up" on my homework, even though I was in the highest-level class. It's not my fault. Boys are just so ... *sigh, bosom heave*. (On the bright side, I can totally fold a note, like, 8 different cute ways.)
I was pretty sure I wasn't Mrs. H's favorite student, and I probably caused her quite a few headaches, what with being all new and paperworky and spontaneously sobby (not to mention flighty, boy-crazy and ADD).
The day before Christmas break, we all received our gifts. I don't remember the color of the paper or the order of delivery, but what I do remember is the word.
And with that word, Mrs. H proved that she understood me. She didn't judge me for my new-girl drama or lack of follow-through on homework. She saw something positive in me; I had something to offer. From then on, I worked hard in her class and wound up being a good student. I even won an award at the end of the year.
Today, some of the projects she assigned, the things she taught me, stay with me, because of one little word. The word that made sense to me and to Mrs. H. Because of that gift, I opened my mind and my heart to her teaching and am ever better for it.
(And, it kind of makes up for my 9th-grade English teacher who handed me The Bell Jar and told me she thought I'd really relate to it. Still trying to figure out that one.)
*Still posting C-U-Next-Tuesday tonight, but I was feeling guilty about all the meanness on the blog lately.*
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteBut - but - but -
What was the word?
Did I miss it? I read the post three times looking for it. Have I got selective blindness!
Or was it not to be revealed? Or is it too private now, in feel? Has it become like unto a mantra, to you? Or is it simply, beside the point of the story - more evocative if left unstated?
This is like Report on the Barnhouse Effect, where Vonnegut won't spill what the sentence is.
I think this was a trick post...I'm looking for the word too...was it Facetious? Intrepid? Incontinent?
ReplyDeleteI didn't intend to reveal it, but it's not a huge secret.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if you reaaaally want to know ...
Aw gawd damnit... what is the word. DO you know what you just did to me. The OCD of needing to know will kill me. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
ReplyDeleteWas it cupcake. Naked. I think that last one would get her in trouble.
How do you write a post like that without revealing the word?
ReplyDeleteI will reveal the word. Phubby told me it was just mean not to. I didn't really think anyone would be interested.
ReplyDeleteSo ... although it will be anticlimactic, I'll edit this post. Sometime soon.
THE WORD. WHAT WAS IT?
ReplyDelete"Soon" is over. What's the word??
ReplyDeleteSorry.
ReplyDeleteSummer.