Hug from a Student – The Irony of it All

I sit here with tears in my eyes, barely able to text these words, blurry to me, but clear to you. I want you to think…think of a moment when someone is so happy to see you, so surprised that you appeared in their presence. Got it? What a gift, right? One of the best gifts ever! I was given that gift yesterday.

Let’s go back a few days first…my husband was rewatching his video of this gift during the weekend long surprise celebration of my 50th birthday. My daughter came walking in from around a corner and I was so shocked and delighted that I was overcome with joy, so much so that I couldn’t even speak, as tears happily christened my ruddy cheeks. She flew home to Rhode Island from Key West Community College for the weekend…for me! Neither I nor my beloved will ever forget that moment. It was a gift to us both.

Yesterday, as I walked into the ice skating rink from the back entrance, my eyes were drawn to my left as I saw such an expression of joy on a familiar face. A gasp of surprise leaked from his smile and I mirrored the same feeling as I looked into that delighted grin. As I stepped forward toward him to say hello, he popped up from the bench like a jack-in-the-box, stepped toward me on his skates, looming over me like a friendly giant.

Before I knew it, he embraced me in a bear hug and lifted me off my feet, bending his back to hold the weight of me! As he set me down upon the rubber matting, our smiles had to give way to shouts of hello! Neither of us could wipe the grins off our faces as we chatted while tying up our skates, ready to step out onto the ice for some fun.

A beautiful gift, right? A former student, now at the high school after leaving grade 8 and my classroom doors six months prior, reacting without thinking, just by following his heart.

The irony you might wonder? Just recently my colleagues and I were discussing the fact that we as teachers cannot touch students for fear of any misunderstanding. It is ironic to me that so shortly after this conversation that a student did just that as a show of his happiness to see one of his teachers. It is sad that we are now in a time that human touch is frowned upon in schools, yet teachers have the daily watch over students in their care that lack this very thing. The powers that be also direct us to teach them social-emotional skills because they are so desperately needed and lacking in generations of today. So it all seems to leave us in a state of irony.

Ironic circumstances may surround me, but all I can do and have done for the past 30 years is follow my heart, just as my former student did!