Teacher. One simple word, it has many different meanings for each person and also paints many scenes in one’s head. They are people who have impacted lives, many times in ways they know not of.
Today I visited my high school and something really hit me and I’m not sure why, quite yet. Two of my friends and I went to mass at the cathedral and then headed over to Rosati for refreshments and then to wander the building. After eating some cookies we headed out to roam the hallways, reminiscing about our past. We ended up wandering the halls for a good hour and a half, chatting it up with some of our old teachers and peers. It always is quite a joy to be back, see the new girls and teachers, and to catch up with friends and faculty.
There is one particular moment of our visit today that really had an impact on me. One of the first teachers we stopped to talk with was Mrs. Everson. While at Rosati I had Mrs. Everson for World Religions, Vocations, and Women of Faith during my senior year. Outside of class I never spent much unscheduled time in her room with my friends, so I didn’t ever get to know her as more than a teacher. So today my friends and I walked into her room and sat down in some desks towards the back of the room, and when Mrs. Everson was done talking with a girl and her grandmother she came over and sat down with us. We talked as if we were the best of friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while, just having a conversation about our lives.
Reflecting back on earlier today, I think what made this one conversation stick out from the others was its genuineness. Everson took fifteen minutes out of her day to sit down and really see how things are going in our lives. She truly listened to us, encouraged us along the paths we have all chosen, and offered us her motherly advice. The way she was so selfless with her time, chatting with us when she had a lot of other things that could have been done, and truly cared for how we were doing really touched me. Upon leaving her room a desire filled my heart, a desire to live a life that would touch others as Everson so gently had touched mine. So gently that you don’t even realize they had a hand on you until you leave them and come back into their welcoming, loving embrace.
I don’t know how God is calling me to fulfill this desire tomorrow, let alone five years down the road. But I do believe that this revelation of sorts, the uncovering of this desire, had brought me one step closer to where God has been leading me the past year or so.
