Everyone has heard the story of the starfish; it varies from telling to telling who is throwing starfish into the ocean and who stops to talk to him. What remains in each telling is the point: “It made a difference to that one.”
If you haven’t read the starfish story in a while, google search it and read it now. As you read, think about the little differences you make.
Principal Shepherd shared this story at the West Wilkes graduation on Friday, and I cried. The growth I witnessed in my students this year, particularly in their own self-confidence, created a “plop, plop, plop” sound in my head as I saw multiple starfish that were dying at the beginning of the year successfully return to the ocean.
I do not know what next year or even next month holds for me. And my students have a long way to go. I do know that they have been returned to the ocean. A couple are still sitting on the part of the beach where the waves crash over regularly, not completely or eternally submerged in water. It will be someone else’s job to throw them the rest of the way.
Regardless of where I end up and what all of the students choose to do from this point forward, I know I made a difference to that one, and that one, and that one, and that one…
Teaching is the best job anyone could ever have.
