Before It's Too Late

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

 

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

 

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

 

That weekend, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

 

The next Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.

 

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

 

Several years later, one of the students, Kevin, was killed in an accident, and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. He looked so grown up, handsome, so mature.

 

The church was packed with Kevin's friends, family and co-workers. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

 

As she stood there, one of Kevin's co-workers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Kevin's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Kevin talked about you a lot.'

 

After the funeral, most of Kevin's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Kevin's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

 

'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Kevin when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'

 

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Kevin's classmates had said about him.    

 

'Thank you so much for doing that,' Kevin's mother said. 'As you can see, he treasured it.'

 

All of Kevin's former classmates started to gather around. Dave smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'

 

Tom's wife said, 'Tom asked me to put his in our wedding album.'

 

'I have mine too,' Amy said. 'It's in my diary'

 

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her purse, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'

 

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Kevin and for all his friends who would never see him again.

 

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be. In the blink of an eye everything can change.

 

So forgive often and love with all of your heart. You may never know when you may not have that chance again. So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.  If you do not, you will have passed up the wonderful opportunity to do something nice and beautiful.

 

And try to enjoy life as it is, today.  Because yesterday is gone and tomorrow is never promised.

 

Curtis