Teachers are Good People (mostly)

quarterJust the other day, I ran into one of my old teachers. Excuse me, one of my former teachers. We see each other on occasion out and about around my hometown. She is very active in the community and to be honest, I don’t know much about her personal life.
Do you have a former teacher or person you remember in a positive light? For me, that is Mrs. W. Thinking back on 3rd grade, my memories are foggy at best but I remember her making us all feel comfortable and knowing even then that she really enjoyed what she was doing.
My fondness for her remains to this day. We always exchange pleasantries and she asks about my son if he isn’t with me. I give her a hug and say ‘nice to see you’ and we go on about our business. On this particular occasion, I happened to notice how much slimmer she is and in fact, that she looks younger than she did 23 years ago.
I mentioned this fact to my mother whom works at the store we were both patronizing. And that should be the end of the story. A casual mention of a random observation by a student about a former teacher.
A week or so has passed, and today my mother came by to chat about the new school year and the adventures of the day. One of her main reasons for her coming over was because she had something to give me.
Mom reminded me of what I had said about Mrs. W and said that she saw her in the store again today. My mother told Mrs. W what I had said and her response was the following.
“That was nice of him to say. Tell him in the olden days people use to give someone a nickel when they gave them a compliment.”
She handed my mom a quarter and said, “Give him this and tell him it has gone up because of inflation.”
What a nice woman, what a thoughtful woman, what a great person and a truly kind individual.
It made my already great day that much better. It was nothing big, just a simple gesture. I guess maybe that is where the term ‘pay you a compliment’ comes from? I will have to research that further.
In the meantime, make somebody’s day and pay them a compliment. You never know what you might get in return.

-by Travis Peck
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