A difference made

Whatever Wednesday

As a teacher, you hope that over the course of time and the hundreds of students that walk through your door, you make a difference in one of those lives.  Upon retiring, that question has seemed to dwell in my mind more often as what I did all those years is now set in stone and it is too late to try and correct things anymore to be even better since I am no longer in the classroom.  This is part of a Facebook message I received today from my former Assistant Principal and colleague.

Steve, I have been working hard to transfer all of our accounts out of Wells Fargo to Matanuska Valley Credit Union. I have spent at least 4 hours with a young married women in the Eagle River Branch named C V.  She is fabulously bright, professional, detail oriented and personable. She delighted me today to regale me with stories about her time at PHS and her two favorite teachers Mr. Cook and Mrs. R-A. She credits you both with your kindness, teaching style and compassion. She stated she entered business because of you, BRAVO.  She says hello to you.

Well, nothing like making my day.  I count amongst my former students that credit me with many things, a writer for the Corps of Engineers who is also a musician and has released a CD, an actor who has been nominated for an international award, a scrub-nurse in training, a fellow teacher who credits my keyboarding class as the most important class in her education and has challenged both my writing and that of her students, and several who are now involved in various educational aspects. 

It's been a good day.