The Letter

When my former colleague invited me out for drinks one night, I accepted. I was looking forward to the opportunity to reconnect, hear about my former students and what was going on at the school I'd grown to love and just catch up.

We enjoyed a lovely evening and I was reminded of all the reasons I had felt so affectionately toward that school in the first place. Everyone there was so kind and compassionate and they all had their hearts in all the right places.

Toward the end of the evening, my former colleague said, "there's something I've been wanting to tell you." So of course, I immediately start thinking about all the possible things he'd want to tell me; that he's gay, getting engaged, about to declare bankruptcy, who knows, and I braced myself for his news.

However, what he said, is this:

"I don't know if you remember it, but there was this one-day last year when you were in the building and I was experiencing a lot of tension in school. I wasn't getting along with one of the other teachers and it got so bad that the principal called me in to his office to tell me that this teacher had complained about me. He (the principal) even went so far as to say that some of the social workers were also complaining about me." 

Here he paused and looked up at me, and then he continued speaking. "That same day just a few hours before the principal called me in to tell me this, you sent me a letter telling me how much you appreciated me. So, I took that letter you sent me just that morning, held it in my hands, showed it to the principal and said, 'see not all the social workers are complaining about me.' " 

He continued, "Until now I didn't want to share this with you because the principal was still with us and I didn't want to make a big deal or create politics. But he has since moved on and I just wanted you to know how much your words meant to me. You just never know when your words are going to go right to someone's heart."

I went back to look at the letter I'd written and had long since forgotten about and it was dated February 17, 2017. It is almost a year and a half later now and it is obvious that the impact of this letter is still lingering. Who knew the difference one word could make?

Aside from inspiring me, this incident reminded me of the power of even a small, single act of kindness. Even one nice word which seems small in your life can make a huge impact in someone else's. We should always look for ways to give however and whenever we can because even the little things we give can make the biggest difference.