texts from my mom:

"kids wrote letters to teachers for teacher appreciation day and guess what? you got a big card from sydney."

"never doubt that you can make a difference in a kids life."

sydney was a little girl I had my first year teaching preschool. I haven't gotten to work with her for almost 3 years. she was always looking at me and watching me. adorable shy little girl, always well put together with cute outfits and her hair was perfect and she had pretty blue eyes. she never wanted to talk to any one and was terrified of new people. she didn't warm up to me or any of the other teachers for a while. but soon she was always holding my hand. complimenting me on just about everything I did with wide-eyed admiration.

I became close with her mother and ended up playing on a women's rec league with her weekly for the past year or so. syd would send notes sometimes with her. one was a card she had drawn and had a girl with long black hair and a rainbow striped dress (I always leaned toward super bright colors when I got dressed for work at preschool) and flowers and hearts all over it. On the inside she asked me to come over and babysit and play. Even her older sister signed the card. It's been hanging on my bulletin board so I can see it everyday. I wrote her a note back on a piece of ripped paper that I had in my purse and sent it home with her mom. Months later her mom told me sydney had gotten a new purse and was starting to get into really girly-girl things and she was looking in her purse and there was lip gloss, a compact, and a crumpled kleenex. she went the toss the kleenex in the trash and sydney started yelling. It was the note I had written her. crumpled from folding it so many times. I don't even remember what I wrote. I wish I did.