Throughout my four years of high school, I had a lot of teachers. Some of these teachers really cared about me, and some of them just thought of me as a student in their class. This is an open letter to the teachers who thought of me as not just a kid in their class, but a real person who mattered.
Thank you for making me feel like I mattered. I wanted to do my best in your classes to impress you. Skipping your class or not doing your homework wasn't an option because I didn't want to let you down. I would work really hard on assignments for your class and I would be extra excited knowing your class was coming up sometime in the day. You transformed a class I had to go to every day into a little spot of sunshine in my day, as I couldn't wait to be in your presence for an entire 55 minutes.
Thank you for listening to me complain incessantly. It wasn't you, it was just school in general.
Thank you for letting me come in before or after school if I needed help. It was so comforting to know that if I needed help, you would always be there for me.
Thank you for also just letting me come into your room and hang out, whether it was after school while I was waiting for the parking lot to clear out or during passing periods, so I could just come in and say hi.
Thank you for letting me ask really weird and personal questions, and answering all the ones that you could. I was really just interested in who you were outside of school and sometimes it got us sidetracked in class, and nobody was ever too mad about that.
Finally, thank you for actually teaching me things that help me kick butt in college. My pre-calculus skills are useful in my physics class in different ways, helping me better understand the new material. My statistics skills have come in handy for multiple classes, making me a step ahead of the rest of my classmates. My psychology classes have made an appearance in virtually every class and knowing who that psychologist is or what that study proved puts me leaps and bounds ahead of my class; But the class that changed my college experience the most was journalism. My high school journalism class led me to my love for writing. I'm taking three writing classes right now and I love them, and this class may have led me to a career I will follow the rest of my life.
Overall, you made my high school experience really special and have truly helped me in my transition to college. Teachers like you are undervalued, but to the students, you mean everything. One final thank you: thank you for being you.
Sincerely,
A Grateful Student
