To the kids in the classroom I will one day be standing at the front of:

Thank you for trusting me to fill your brains.

Thank you for listening, or at least pretending to, on days when you could give a flying flip what I have to say about Shakespeare, Hawthorne, or Sylvia Plath. Thank you for raising your hands and having thoughts you are excited about sharing. You are the reason my classroom works.

Thank you for knowing when it is time to speak, and when it is time to listen. I wish that some people twice your age could make that distinction.

Thank you for the nights you stayed up to finish that paper you should have started two weeks prior. I can see the sleepiness oozing out of your pores, but a part of me cannot even be disappointed in you. You really didn’t have to write that paper -- I couldn’t stand over your shoulder at home and force you -- but some part of you cared enough to sacrifice sleep to do it. Some part of you genuinely cares.

I enter my classroom every morning with gratitude in my heart, and a prayer upon my lips. Let me inspire someone today. Let me teach someone something they didn’t know when they first walked through the door. Let my love of words and literature be evident in all that I do. Let these students realize how truly, genuinely, deeply I care for them. They are the reason my work really doesn’t feel like work at all.

Each one of you is a seedling, and I am your gardener. I exist to help you grow. I cannot force you to do it; I can only provide you an environment in which you can most successfully do it for yourself. I can feed you knowledge, water you with the words of the literary greats, and bring you the bright sunshine you need to shoot up tall and strong out of the soil. You have the strength inside you to be great. How blessed I am to have the chance to watch your grand becoming.

I hope that you go forward in this world and change something. A person’s heart, an unjust legal ordinance, the world of science. Wherever you go, and whatever you become, carry words with you and treasure them always. Words are your key to making it in this world. When you use them effectively, words will get people to listen. Words temper first impressions, marriage proposals, and lab reports. They are everywhere. When you master them, you will have the world on a string. Let me help you do this.

Thank you for allowing me to influence you at one of the most pivotal points in your life -- for sharing your thoughts with me, being patient with me, and allowing me to serve my life’s purpose. I will never hunger for a six-figure salary; because of you, my soul is satisfied.