This Kid.

I never expected when I started teaching

how much of my heart these kids would capture.

They all find a way

to work themselves in there

so that I begin to think of them as my own.

And then it's hard to say goodbye at the end of a long but somehow short year.

But this one.

This one I did not see coming.

Dustin was in my first class

three years ago.

He had a lot going on

He was a typical ninth grade boy

I had to fight him to get him to read a book

to write a paper

to share his answers.

But he fought his way into my heart.

He and his best friend

became my boys.

He announced at the end of the year that he was moving

and I cried.

I wanted to see him grow into a man

he would have been such a good one.

I wanted to see him walk across the stage and get a diploma.

He moved and we lost touch.

But I did not forget him.

I sat with his best friend two days ago.

He pulled up a chair to my desk after school

and told me that we lost Dustin over Spring Break.

He said, "Mrs. Herndon, he had so much going for him."

He had become president of FFA at his new school.

He was playing basketball.

He was going to college on a full ride scholarship.

Another teacher came and told me as well.

He wanted to make sure I knew.

"I wanted you to know because I knew how much he loved you."

And so, my heart is a little broken.

But it reminds me that what I do

is not really all that much about English and books.

But it is life and death.

It is loving kids

and letting them know we care.

It is sharing the good news and the hope that we have.