Small things matter. Take Kindergarten for example. All in all it wasn’t very nice to me. I can remember my teachers telling me to stop daydreaming. School was hard work for me. For most kids cookies and milk were a great treat. For me milk was torture. Not that I had any allergies, I just didn’t like it. Then one day my friend next to me left his seat after getting the milk and when he came back he had chocolate milk. Now chocolate milk is something I could deal with. The next day when he stood up and walked away from his seat I followed. He lead me to a cupboard in the adjoining room with chocolate milk powder. We added a few spoonful and returned to our seats. After a few days of this the teacher, Mrs Spencer caught on and sent a note home with me that said if I wanted chocolate milk I would need to bring my own. So my mother called the neighbor and arranged a shared can of chocolate milk mix.
The next day was amazing. My friend didn’t bring chocolate milk, he brought Strawberry Quick. What could be better!!
A few days later when adding the delicious mixture to the bland white liquid, I saw something in the can. What luck this can of Strawberry Quick had stickers as a free toy surprise. My hand went in, but just like a monkey once I grabbed the stickers my hand would not come out. I was bound and determined to get the stickers and so I worked and worked until I had them. When I returned to my seat I was so happy that I showed my friend who immediately claimed the stickers because his mom bought the can of Strawberry Quick. He placed the stickers that I had slaved for on his shoes and in moments they were ruined. Now I just had a sore hand but no stickers. It seemed like I wasn’t good at anything and life was just plain unfair.
Until . . .
Coloring! I can still remember Mrs. Spencer telling me that I was doing a great job coloring the spots on my giraffe. I was so proud. I finally did something right. It is the first time I realized that there was something at school that I was good at that was fun to do. I remember staying after class to finish coloring the brown spots.
Small things matter, a simple comment to a lost kindergarten boy made a lasting impact. Thank you Mrs. Spencer.