The things we learn from our teachers

Our very first memories might be of our parents but sometimes they are of our teachers. We attend nursery school at merely two or three years. Our teachers are remembered like our second parents. As years pass by we leave our first teacher and move onto our second. Most of the time we never realize what we are leaving behind when we let ourselves get swept in a rush. More often than not, we never even get a chance to thank our teachers for the time they take. We don’t even realize that we have copied their habits.

I remember trying to balance my chair on two legs while the teacher kept advising me not to. In the end it flipped and I fell down with the chair. He helped me up and wiped my tears. A few years later another teacher put her saliva on a classmates newly formed bruise. I watched with fascination. Time passed and I ripped my book in half against my teachers orders right in front of her. I remember like yesterday when my ninth grade teacher screamed at me for a misunderstanding between us. When I apply for a job in the future I will write ‘resume’’ because it was my A’ level English teachers pet word, and on the very day of leaving school , on my graduation speech the teacher correcting it replaced ‘school’ with ‘Alma Mata’ and in the future I am sure I will unconsciously do the same thing.

At the last exam of our A’ level exam we all smiled. We were ecstatic about leaving school. Going to jobs and doing our own thing. The teachers smiled and watched as we left. They were happy that we took what they had to give. The same thing happens with our parents. When it is time to leave the nest, they accept it and let us go with their blessings. We find is hard to even come back and visit them. Same happens to our close friends whom we find no time to talk to or even greet as we rush by trying to live our lives. 

Life is set with stages even without our knowledge. We try to move on from one stage to another and leave some important people behind at each stage. We barely acknowledge what they have done for us. Sometimes we take them for granted. But at times we think about them. We wonder about them. It is never too late to go and say hello to the people we left behind. More importantly it is useful to look around us and give a hug or a heartfelt thanks to the people who keep us going even without us realizing what they are doing.