Hello,
One day, a teacher asks her students to write the names of all the students in the class on a sheet of paper and to leave a little space next to each name.
Then, she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each classmate and to write it next to each name. It took a full hour for everyone to finish, and before leaving the classroom, the students handed their papers back to the teacher.
Over the weekend, the teacher wrote each student's name on a sheet of paper, and next to it, all the kind remarks that the others had written about each of them.
On Monday, she gave each student their list.
Shortly after, everyone was smiling.
- “Really?” could be heard whispering…
- I had no idea I mattered to someone!
- "I didn't know the others liked me that much" were the comments heard in the classroom…
No one ever spoke of that list again. The teacher did not know whether the students had discussed it among themselves or with their parents, but it did not matter. The exercise had served its purpose. The students were satisfied with themselves and with one another.
A few years later, a student died in Vietnam, and the teacher attended his funeral.
The church was packed. Many friends were there. One by one, they approached the coffin to say a final goodbye. The teacher went last and trembled before the coffin. One of the soldiers present asked her, “Were you Marc’s math teacher?”
She nodded and said, “Yes.” Then he told her, “Marc often spoke about you.”
After the funeral, most of Marc's friends had gathered.
Marc's parents were there too, and they were impatiently waiting to speak to the teacher. “We wanted to show you something,” Marc's father said, and he took his wallet out of his pocket. “We found this when Marc fell in the war. We thought you might recognize it…” He pulled a very worn piece of paper out of the wallet that had clearly been glued back together, unfolded, and refolded many times.
Without looking at it, the teacher knew it was one of the sheets from the famous list of students containing many kind remarks written at the time by classmates about Marc.
"We would like to thank you for what you did," said Marc's mother. "As you can see, Marc really appreciated the gesture."
All the former students gathered around the teacher. - Charlie smiled and said, “I still have my list. It’s in the first drawer of my desk.”
- Chuck's wife says: “Chuck asked me to put it in our wedding album.”
- "I still have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."
- Then, Vicky, another student, took out her planner and showed her well-worn list to the others present. “I always have it with me,” said Vicky, adding, “We’ve all kept it.”
The teacher was so moved that she had to sit down and she began to cry.
She was crying for Marc and for all his friends who would never see him again.
Moral of the story:
In everyday life with others, we too often forget that all life comes to an end one day and that we do not know when that day will come.
That is why it is important to tell the people we love and who are dear to us that they are special and important to us.
Tell them before it's too late.
Marylena
