Last week, I pulled a piece of tape off my classroom door, and instead of throwing it out, I handed it to one of my students who was sitting in the front row. I said to her, "Here you go, it's a gift."
She looked at me and said, "Thank you. I still have the last gift you gave me. I'll put this piece of tape with the other."
Not remembering what she was talking about, I said, "what gift?"
She replied, "At the beginning of the year, you were collecting papers, and a scrap fell off of one of them. You picked it up, handed it to me, and said that I could keep it as a gift. It's on my bulletin board at home. I look at it every night."
I don't have any recollection of that "gift" but what I will never forget is how thankful she was, and how one simple comment, or act of kindness can be so valued and treasured. It didn't matter that both things I gave her should have belonged in the trash can. What matters is that she felt important and wanted to keep that as a memory of how she felt.
I guess the essential question is: What can we intentionally do today, to create a positive memory for someone?
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