One teacher I will always remember for the rest of my life is Ms. Grace. The main thing I remember about her is how she used to have a vanilla mixed with cigarettes smell that I used to love so much. I remember being scared of school because I knew no one there, and me not knowing how to speak English at the time, was ready to just give up anything school related. At around that time I got transferred into Ms. Graces class and after a while she noticed that it was hard for me to communicate the way I wanted, so she would find ways to say things in a way that I would understand better. Eventually she started teaching me English little by little, and looking back I notice how patient she was with me and in extremely grateful for that.
After third grade my parents put me in another school because of their jobs, so after second grade was that last time I saw her. One thing that I remember her teaching me was learning how to ask for help and how to be patient with myself even when I didn’t understand something, which was something I was very bad at growing up. This year when I graduated I got the opportunity to see her again and when I did we both just bursted into tears.
When she hugged me, she hugged me tight and then all that nostalgia came back to me as soon as she did. As soon as I hugged her back the smell of that warm vanilla and cigarettes came back to me. I thought it was crazy that she smelled and looked exactly the same as I remember her. The first thing she told me was how she was extremely happy to she me in a cap and gown with my high school diploma, and that just gave me the most warmest and proudest feeling I had ever felt. She proceeded to tell me that she was actually retiring soon and how she was happy that she could see me again and was shocked on how I still remembered her after all these years. And that’s when it hit me, she had such an impact on my life that I would be able to remember her without even trying, and that showed me that you can see which teachers are the one who really love and care about their jobs because, I know for a fact that if Ms. Grace did not care about her job me and my friends who also had the chance to be taught by her, would not have remembered her after all these years.
