My Valentine
In January 2012, I began my final Spring semester as an undergraduate. I was nearing the end of my schooling to become an educator. Before student teaching, I was required to complete forty observation hours in a classroom. Pretty standard protocol. I contacted the teacher whose classroom I'd been assigned to and set a date to start. The day was February 2, 2012. Groundhog's Day. A day that plays over and over again in my head. I knocked gently on the classroom door and the teacher walked over to welcome me. Now, it may have been that I was still in my morning haze and hadn't had enough coffee yet. Or it could have been the way the morning sunlight came through the window and enveloped her in an orange glow, but as I remember it, I was greeted by an angel. There is no doubt in my mind that she was heaven sent. I don't remember much from the rest of that day, but I do remember going home that night and saying a foxhole prayer. "God, if you do exist, I'm pret...
