Teacher Paycheck

Oh, ya! I got paid today. My Teacher Paycheck. I was checking out of the grocery when I turned to see a young mother and her two children. Because her face was familiar, I smiled and said hello and was greeted with, "MS. BECK! Is that you, Ms. Beck?" Hugs, laughs, joy. Eight years after I taught this young woman, she remembered me. "You were the best English teacher I ever had. I'm serious. I was just telling my husband the other day about you and how I wished I would run into you somewhere." Of course, I always remember their faces, but most of the time, I have to ask for their names. Once they tell me, memories and details flood. It's funny, too... when I see these grown-ups (even years and years after I taught them, the longer I gaze into their eyes, the better I see the child I once taught). Some of my oldest students are in their thirties now.... and I can still recognize their baby faces as we chat.

The best part? "I'm in college, Ms. Beck!". Now... that's exactly what I want to hear and that's the real paycheck, indeed. Oh, how I love my pickles... from the days of their young, adolescent angsty selves to their grown-up persons.

A few weeks ago, I ran into one of my pickles at the grocery. He was brilliant in high school. He's since graduated from college, is working as a business manager and is applying for his MBA... at Harvard. This from a kid at one of the "inner-city" schools I once taught. Yep... it's true. Tell them they are the best and the brightest and they become so. Self-fulfilling prophesy is alive and well.  I'm just proud to have been a small grain of sand in the beach of his academic career.

A few months ago, I was walking down the sidewalk to the library and was greeted by another young man in the same manner. He was one of my pickles in a high school. Grown, but still the same. What was most telling to me, though? The life lesson that propelled me back to the classroom? The look of disappointment when he asked where I was teaching these days and I replied, "Nowhere. I'm writing these days."

"Oh no. I have kids, Ms. Beck. I was hoping you'd be their teacher someday."

I held onto that one comment as I launched back into the classroom. It inspired me beyond what he probably realized.  Whenever I doubt myself... I think back over the years and years of children I have had the honor to teach and remind myself of all of the incredible life lessons they will teach me.

I am so inspired to learn.