Thank YOU!

Quite a few of you know that it was my birthday this past Monday. For someone my age, birthday is not something that I throw a big celebration at anymore… after all, when you know you have almost certainly lived through one-third of your life already, you learn to start to hide your birthday rather than announce it to everybody.

But nevertheless, there are many people I must thank for this year.

First off: to the dear students who have created a beautiful birthday card for me, and presented it to me before we went on our break – your words of kindness brought tears to my eyes. No joke. To read the words of appreciation you people wrote on that card made all the work worthwhile. I was told, and have always experienced, that teaching is a low-paying job that requires you to work long hours with little appreciation from the world (after all, we are the slackers that get almost 3 months’ worth of vacation per year, right?). But to know that you people who are struggling with me KNOW that I am working hard to make your time worthwhile… that is all I need to hold on when times are tough.

And then, there are my brothers and sisters. We went to a church retreat this past weekend, and we were all exhausted from the preparation work leading to the trip, and the actual camp drained us further. Still, on the night we came out, you still insisted to treat me to a nice dinner. Many of were came to the dinner exhausted or even sick, but you came anyway. Some people feel hesitant to call people that go to the same church brothers and sisters, but to me, you people really ARE brothers and sisters to me.

I don’t know what I have done, or who I am, to deserve such love. I just want to say that you people are so wonderful to me, and I am so grateful to have your love.

Thank YOU!