Paths Meant to Cross
When I was expecting my first child, I received my student roster for the upcoming year.
Who’s in your 6th grade class? my teacher friends asked. Then, when they saw a particular name on the list, they advised me to request that the student be moved because of my upcoming maternity leave.
I spoke with the principal. Her answer to my concern was, “Johnna, she needs you.”
With that, I welcomed the student into my classroom. From the beginning of the school year, the child worked with me, helped me, and treated me with complete respect. I didn’t view her through the eyes of the past teachers. I accepted her for who she was and became her source of support when several family members were killed in different drive-by shootings. As her troubled world turned upside down, she came to know me as her safe haven.
After my son was born, I took him to school. My student was there, of course: and that day, in the office for trouble in the classroom. She asked to carry my baby to class. I sat and talked with her about how she disappointed me by being in the office. She cried and told me how much she missed me.
When my student and her family moved to Texas, she kept in touch with me over e-mail.
Chance Encounters
My former student didn’t tell me her family was moving back to our area. Then one day I was in a Sam’s Club store and spotted her. I crashed my cart into hers — and she turned to tell me off, lol. Her expression changed to complete joy, and she hugged me and told me everything, as if she was still in my classroom. She graduated from high school and moved back to our area.
Our paths crossed again when, a few years ago, my family was at the town fireworks. My former student was looking in a different direction as I walked up to her husband and asked him if he knew how lucky he was. He had no clue who I was, but when his wife turned around and saw me, she happily began to fill him in.
The best part of the night was meeting my former student’s two children and hearing her say that I need to continue teaching so that, one day, her children can join my classroom. And where, as their teacher, I can serve as a role model for them, as I did for their mother.
In thinking back, I’m happy the principal kept that student in my class. She needed me in her life as much as I needed her in mine.
