I Am a Teacher

When my student visited me yesterday and I told her that I observe that it is often the quiet ones who remember their teachers, she gave a self deprecating laugh and said 'yes, I'm a little weird'. I love this girl. She used to be so quiet but she has grown up so well and confident in her own way. Now a teacher herself, she came up to see me on her own accord after learning that I just had an operation. I made a half-boiled egg and kaya toast breakfast. She ate as I recounted the years we spent together. Among the girls who loved being with friends, she always seemed a little in her own world. Not one to have many words, I had written in her report book in one year that she needed to 'develop more confidence'. And lo and behold, how she has grown. Not only did she take the initiative to visit, she offered to drive me somewhere if I could make the trip. I felt warm inside.
Probably the others are busy with their own lives. 'The brilliant ones' she quipped are 'used to living life at that kind of pace'. How true. A number of her peers are married and caught up in making a living themselves. She herself devotes her time to church.

Before she left, I lent her the book 'Quiet' by Susan Cain. I hope she never loses what is so special about her. And to continue in her work as a teacher to help the quiet and weird ones to find their own voice.