Letter to a former student

Dear Jake,

I have just gotten home from spending the last few hours with you and I can't stop smiling. While we spent the better part of three hours talking about what's happened in our lives over the course of the last several years, there are still a few things I want to say.

I'm not sure I adequately expressed how much it means to me that you called and wanted to meet up. I know we had talked about it, but that you actually took the initiative and followed through with it means the world to me. Despite having kept track of where you were and what was going on in your life through the years, there is nothing better than hearing it from you, with all the details. So, thank you...thank you for calling, thank you for the big hug when I walked through the door, and thank you for once again letting me share in your life.

Remembering you as a sophomore student makes me smile and shake my head. While there were days you made me want to tear my hair out, there wasn't a day that I didn't love having you as a student. Yes, you tried my patience and pushed my buttons, but you were never unkind or disrespectful. I think we both always knew the aggravation we provided for one another was out of love. I appreciate your saying you learned in my classroom and that you worked harder in there than your other classes, but I mostly appreciate you saying you always knew I cared about you as both a student and a person.

I cherish having wonderful memories of special students and knowing I always did right by them, whether in the classroom or outside of it. I will always have one regret when it comes to you though, Jake. I want you to know I deeply regret not having been there like I should have after the accident. How I wish I could have seen past my own grief over losing Dustin and trying to be there for his family, and taken more time to be with you in the hospital...to hug you tightly and tell you how thankful I was to not have lost you too (you, Ryan, Nathan, and Blake). I know you hold no ill-feelings towards me nor have you ever put much thought into it...I just need you to know I have and I am truly sorry for not having done more for you.

While that accident will forever bind us together, it is only a small portion of why I absolutely adore you. I saw such great potential in you as a sixteen-year-old boy and to have the opportunity to witness, firsthand, your reaching that potential is an amazing gift with which you have blessed me. Jake, you have become a wonderful man, husband and father. I hope you realize how extremely proud I am of you. That I may have played a very small role in your becoming such a fine person is an incredible feeling. When I find myself questioning why I am still teaching, why I continue to do this, I know the answer is... you. You, Jake (and students like you), are what keeps me in education. You make every negative I face in education inconsequential.

I look forward to the moments we will continue to share as friends. Thank you again for allowing me to be a part of your life.

With much love,

Jodi