I hope it helped you

Maybe Of Mice and Men.

Maybe Gatsby.

I don’t even remember—

The assignment was never the point.

I was always so bubbly in the class knowing

every single answer, yet never raising my

hand a single time. I was always so happy to sit in class

and read at 7:30 in the morning while the people

around me absolutely dreaded it.

How could someone could dread something

so dear to me.

I never spoke to a single soul in the class but I was never mean

That is just not who I am, I prefer to be kind.

You never fully realized how mean the others were

to you when you were not paying attention.

Honestly, I never did either.

Just as I did not realize how my waiting for you

to get your pencil case could be a kindness.

While the rest of the group was eager to start, I told

our teacher that we were waiting for you to come back.

And when you did, we started like nothing happened.

I did not see this as a big deal—

I would have waited for anyone to get whatever they needed.

But our teacher did.

She slid me a note at the end of class just before the bell

that read, “you have a kind heart.”

While you and I saw my waiting as nothing,

she saw a kid being kind to a person who

was rarely treated that way by their peers.

For all I know you saw it differently.

Maybe my waiting for you made your week.

I think about it often.

I try to do things like that every day.