When I am a teacher
I am going to make sure that my students are given bright yellow pencils
so they will never say… 
“Teacher, I lost my idea!” I can’t find it…
and the pencil
Will be without an eraser
because the point of the pencil is what creates the castles and the rivers
and there is no such thing as erasing a mistake
because the strongest castles are built on staircases of mistakes
 
And my door, won’t be any normal door.
My door will not have the nameplate that says “teacher” it will say
“Student in bright bold letters”
and when I look at the confusion on their faces
I will smile and tell them that before I became a teacher I was a student 
and before a student I was a person. And I am still a person
Just. Like. Them.
 
And that picture of the sunflower you drew?
Save it.
Sometimes hoarding is good.
Because right now it is just a picture but years from now it will be a once upon a time
a collection of magic,
memories you entrapped in faded watercolors that you would have never remembered
had it not been for that precious pile collecting dust underneath your bed.
Someday, that sunflower will represent everything you stood for.
 
And when a thunderstorm passes by
and their faces are pressed against the glass of the window
I won’t rush them.
we will stop class for a couple of minutes just to listen to the rain
because….I will tell them,
rain is the quiet sound of thinking,
and sometimes it is thinking about the smallest raindrop and where it is going
that is most important
It is proof that what is going on out there
is just as important as what is going on in here
 
But there will be days where the water fills your shoes so much so
that you are the last one in line for lunch.
But honey, I will tell her,
There will be days when you feel like the line is 3,000 people long
like you are waiting on the edge of the world
And that’s okay.
Because the people who are last in line
always have the most time to think about where they want to go next
And THAT is one thing, I know to be true.