It’s a common saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. But this is a story that was created by words into a picture.
I’m a grandma who has met the Covid 19 guidelines. I got my vaccine and waited my 2 weeks. Then I drove several hours to see my son and his family, and really see them, as in getting real hugs and able to have a sleep over. The time is after a busy school day and my 13-year-old granddaughter was excited about her day. She burst out loudly saying “this is what they said about me!” Grandma, me, went into defense mode thinking and wondering about who is bullying my darling! So, I asked for more information as calmly as I could. My granddaughter handed me a sheet of typing paper with handwriting on it and I began to read. “You’re really smart”, “you are kind” and the page full of writings went on in this same theme. I asked, “what is this all about?” and I learned about a school assignment for her 7th grade class. “Spread Kindness to Peers” was the assignment. The students all had blank sheets of paper hanging on their hall lockers with the task to write positive comments on them for each student. The students could then take them home.
The School District news bulletin included a picture of the hall lockers with students writing. My favorite line comes from the first line of the second paragraph. “Students learned about the importance of focusing on the positive and uplifting their peers through the power of words”. Ah yes, the power of words. It was wonderful to see my granddaughter so excited to read the positive words and react first with surprise and then with joy. I then read them out loud to her and watched her smile and laugh. That’s a picture created in my mind that I get to keep…
— Grandma