My Favorite Story

I've got lots of funny and sad stories. This is my favorite.

Teachers don't have favorites. Teachers don't have pets. I will always stand by this as true. But if I did have a favorite it would have to be one of the most rambunctious, rowdy students I ever had. This is the kid that you had to tell twenty times a day to sit down or be quiet. "D, don't drum on the desk...pay attention...leave them alone." And yet, this kid has a special place in my heart. It didn't take me long to see once the year started, that D was not what he seemed. He wasn't the troublemaker that I had been led to believe. Instead, I saw what should have been obvious. I beautiful heart inside that constantly moving body. Also, what I soon determined, was that the other boys in the class would constantly pick at him and try to make him mad. Especially at PE class. They soon learned though, that I saw right through them. By the end of the year I hated to see D go. I hated to think he was going to another classroom. Who would be teaching him? Would they understand him? Or would he end up constantly in trouble? Constantly being yelled at? Put down? It broke my heart to see him go. My class has never been quite the same since. The best part of the story is the next year. I would see him in the halls and he would always give me a big hug and talk to me for a minute. One day, before school he handed me a folded piece of construction paper that he had made into a card. It said, "I love you. Thanks for taking my side against J and C." That is one piece of paper that I will always treasure as much as anything my own daughter has made. I still think about and pray for him. I hope that he is surrounded by people that understand and support him. Someday I hope to travel across Texas to see him play football. But, of course, I don't have any favorites. Never! I love you D!