On Wednesday, I posted a writing of some memories about pocket knives that belonged to my Pa, my dad and a very good friend of mine who passed away suddenly over a year ago. The memories were about the knives and how much they mean to me as a memory of the people to whom the knives belonged. But, in response to the blog post, I got a reply from a former student of mine who gave me an unexpected and deeply moving blessing.

In the reply, he made some comments about his own memories of pocket knives that belonged to his grand dad and some of the things that his grand dad had taught him when using a knife and how precious these memories are to him. He talked of his grand dad peeling sugar cane for him and taking him hunting, fishing and teaching him about life. He recalled things his grand dad had done for him and how these things had helped him to become a man.

Then, he went into a remembrance from a very hard and difficult time in his life (and the life of his family) when his brother had been tragically killed in an automobile accident years ago.  At the time, I was the principal at Holmes County High and had gone to visit the family to express my condolences to them in their loss. Let me just say, the times in which we lost a student to unexpected and untimely deaths were the absolute worst times as a principal because I wanted so badly to be able to help alleviate the pain of the parents and other family members during these times but had no ability to do so other than just be there.

Anyway, this young man expressed to me how much he appreciated my being there for his family and him personally during their loss and thanked me in a most kind and touching way by recalling what I had done, what I had said and the advice I had given him during that time. He even recalled I had given him a small, silver cross and telling him of how the Lord was the only answer in the difficult times of life.

If you would like to read his entire response, it is in the comments of the blog from that day. It made my day and I will treasure his response for as long as I have my right mind.

In the business of  education, we often do not get to see the fruits of our labor and  have to just keep on keeping on, believing what we are doing will make a difference in the lives of the students with whom we have contact without benefit of seeing these results.

But yesterday, I got an unexpected gift from a young man and it was a great feeling to know that I made a difference to him. Thank you Tony for the gift.