Little Happiness

Letter 6

"Tonight's complete, everyone's asleep,

And I wanna say these words to You;

I'll be Your hand, take me as I am,

I just wanna be with You."

-Take Me As I Am, FM Static

Ginger handed me a banana as she sat down with me. I smiled at her, "Thank you," I uttered as I looked at my phone. "The signal's bad here," she said as she ate her piece of banana. I grinned and nodded, agreeing that the signal was indeed bad. Of course, what did you expect from a local remote area?

"Thank you for paying attention to Joshua," I heard Ginger whisper to me. I kept my phone and looked at her. She was smiling at me. "He started to like Math already," she added as she kept the banana peel. "It really does make a difference, you know, who teaches the kids. If the person teaching has the heart to educate, to instill knowledge and passion, the result can be easily seen and felt."

"I hope you don't lose the heart and dedication, Michelle. I hope you keep the fire going, and we'll help be the fuel." I smiled as I looked at the kids in front of me. They were still young and innocent, their minds were still fresh and empty of the world's vices.

"Good afternoon kids," I greeted them with a smile. "Good afternoon teacher," they would answer in chorus. It melted. It melted my heart to see the kids excited to learn as I stood in front of them. They were kids aged 9-13, unaware of the world's vices. I wanted to share with them only the good stuffs, and maybe some of the bad stuffs to balance it off.

I started to teach basic Mathematics. I just continued where the previous teacher left off and I must admit that it required a huge amount of convincing, of enticing, of catching their attention to learn subjects with a new perspective, from a new teacher.

"Was my answer correct, teacher?" Sofia, the most active of them all came to me asking if what she did was correct. I smiled at her, "Once you're done with the exercise, give me your paper, okay?" She nodded as she went back to her seat. She was a clever one, though.

"Goodbye teacher," each of them said goodbye to me as they submitted their papers. It was 4PM already, it was time to go home. "See you on Monday," Annabelle, the last student to submit told me as she kissed my cheek. I looked up and saw one last student, Alex, who was still seated.

I waited for him. It usually took him just another 10 to 15 minutes before he submitted his paper. I then started to check the other papers while I waited for him. "Teacher?" I heard Alex's voice. I looked up and saw him submitting his paper. I smiled at him as I patted his head.

"Thank you for not giving up," I told him as I took his paper. Alex smiled and left. You see, you had to show gratitude too, to the kids who were trying their best, those kids who were exerting effort. We never knew what these kids had gone through, or what they were going through, and the best we could do was to understand them the best possible way we could.

I was not sure if it was darkness or lightness they were enclosed in to, but the right amount of light added to any of these could show them the path to where they're headed to.

I took Alex's paper and added it to the pile of other papers when I saw something written at the back. "Thank you for always waiting for me, for giving me extra time to finish."

My heart. My heart was so soft for messages and actions like this. I was smiling, because I knew I was doing the right thing.

Not only was I imparting knowledge to the kids, I was also sharing them one of the most important things in life – the heart.