So I had the same teacher for 3rd and 4th grade so I'm not sure which year it was but her name was Mrs. S.

Every month we had an assembly and part of it was a handful of students would get, essentially, student of the month awards. I remember sitting in those assemblies month after month hoping to get student of the month. I was never absent, got mostly straight A's (I sucked at spelling though), and never got in trouble. Yet month after month would pass and I never got it.

Well, as this was elementary school, everyone got it at some point. I got mine during the last month and she didn't have a whole lot to say about me. I was devastated, of course. I did almost everything right, why didn't she see anything in me? Why wasn't I ever good enough?

Yesterday a thought occured to me. What if she didn't give me the boost of an award because she thought I didn't need it? What if she wanted to give it to kids because she thought they needed the confidence? It was then I realized this was almost certainly the case.

There's more, unrelated, backstory that supports my change of thought on this. But I'm certain this is the case. She didn't think I didn't deserve it, she didn't see nothing in me. It was the opposite. She thought I was doing just fine on my own and didn't need it.

I cried when I realized this. I had a hard time with my peers growing up and realizing that somebody thought that all those reasons I was put down for was actually confirmation to her that I didn't need any kind of reward to be motivated to do my best was so heart warming.

Mrs. S, if you're out there, you were born to be a teacher. If I could I would shake your hand and thank you for looking out for me, believing in me, and giving me the courage to always ask questions. Thank you.