Thank you…
for thinking of me
(…)
for doing what you did,
instead of being too busy,
or just forgetting about it.
(…);
I am honoured;
It meant a lot to me.
Thank you.
by Joanna Fuchs[1]
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| TERESA DA SILVA |
Life has its ups and downs, its beauty and its bitterness. We should appreciate the good days and brace ourselves during the less fortunate moments. However, there are times when nothing seems to work out.
After years in the same institution, fate had it that I should walk another path. A tricky one with a couple of scrapes and scratches along the way. I have dusted off some of the dirt and gone about my path. Yet, every now and again I feel the pain of rebuilding my life again.
On a particularly dark Friday, having dragged myself through the week feeling overwhelmingly confused and distressed, I came close to losing myself in my misery. My body did not want to cooperate, my brain seemed foggy – it took all my will power and nerve to get to the end of that working week. It was then that a small but incredibly powerful miracle occurred.
Alone, depressed and extremely angry, I took to my privacy and opened my computer to peruse my social media account: “perhaps something interesting will distract me”. A friend request. Curiosity sparked. Oddly the request came with a message. A short message that had me on the verge of tears. A ex-student, someone I had taught over a decade before, was reaching out to me. Not to ask for a favour, not to make a request, no. He simply wanted to remember the good old days and thank me for having been his teacher. Those words made my day! They gave me the strength to face the odds and regain some of the joy I have always had in teaching.
Today I thank him for those kind words. They meant the world to me. They showed me that, imperfect as I am, I can and do make a difference in my students’ lives. There will be many more bad days…but I will always have those words of appreciation to encourage me. So…thank you VBS for doing what you did.