Sunday, Mar. 09, 2003 - 6:04 p.m.
YOU ARE SPECIAL
One day a teacher asked her students to list the
names of the other students in the room on two sheets
of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they
could say about each of their classmates and write it
down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish
their assignment, and as the students left the room,
each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of
each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed
what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list.
Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?"
she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant
anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked
me so much." were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again.
She never knew if they discussed them after class or
with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise
had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy
with themselves and one another. That group of
students moved on.
Several years later, one of the students was killed
in Viet Nam and his teacher attended the funeral of
that special student. She had never seen a serviceman
in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so
mature.
The church was packed with his friends. One by one
those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin.
The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.
As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as
pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math
teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes." Then he said:
"Mark talked about you a lot."
After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates
went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father
were there, obviously waiting to speak with his
teacher.
"We want to show you something," his father said,
taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on
Mark when he was killed. We thought you might
recognize it."
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn
pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been
taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher
knew without looking that the papers were the ones on
which she had listed all the good things each of
Mark's classmates had said about him.
"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother
said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."
All of Mark's former classmates started to gather
around.
Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still
have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at
home."
Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our
wedding album."
"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."
Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her
pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn
and frazzled list to the group.
"I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said and
without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we
all saved our lists."
That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried.
She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would
never see him again.
The density of people in society is so thick that we
forget that life will end one day. And we don't know
when that one day will be.
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that
they are special and important. Tell them, before it
is too late.
