Subject: Re: you are a phenominal person!!!
To: S. Vega
Date: Saturday, September 6, 2008, 1:00 PM
Oh-h-h Sophia!!! This is my 1st time checking this site in days & what a pleasant surprise! Your letter is so very touching & moving! How could I ever forget S. Vega? I was truly thrilled to see you too at the NPS convocation at Pru. Hall on Thursday. It had to be divine intervention because you have honestly come to my mind every so often all these years,including recently. I always wonder how some of my favorite former students are and you were definitely one very high on that list. Whenever you re-enter my mind though I go back to procrastinating about trying to reach you and hoping you'll just pop up in my class one day like many other former students have.
How fabulous to know you're starting your 1st year of teaching now! With all the love you showed me as my student, I'm sure you'll shower your own students with that same precious gift. Some will go to their graves without showing appreciation and love to all the special people in their lives. Many students wait until years later to let some teachers know how they touched their lives but you were one of those who did it on a regular basis while in my class. It is students like you who truly make teaching worthwhile and give us that extra boost when the going gets rough as a teacher. Many students used to give me notes or cards which explained how I impacted them but you were one of the few who gave me gifts and often said or did such sweet things but left me wondering how I'd earned the honor of your admiration. Today, you have answered that question for me and I thank you so much for all of your beautiful words. Stay sweet, stay beautiful, and God bless. I will always love you and I hope we stay in touch!
Love, Miss Whitley
P.S. -- Which year did you graduate? -- It's funny you asked about Do Something. That's the last after school activity I coached & haven't done it since 2002 but just applied to coach it again this year! It's now known as "The League" and the Newark headquarters are still on James St. You can go to http://www.theleague.org/ also for more information.
On Thu, 9/4/08, S. Vega wrote:
Subject: you are a phenominal person!!!
To: sis joy
Date: Thursday, September 4, 2008, 1:37 PM
I was genuinely happy and excited to see you today! Sorry, I just couldn't wait to email you. With all of the students you have had---I was shocked you remembered my name and I am honored you did--thank you !! I know this may be corny and kind of cliche but I have to> > let it out... you were such a phenominal teacher to me--you gave me inspiration. you were so energetic and gave us so much information in a cool conversational kind of way. I learned a lot from your history classes--but I must be completely honest---what I remember most is how knowledgeable you were and the discussions we had and most of all if there was something that was not neccessarily in the text book--well you encouraged me to "read between the lines" and you know what?? I had NEVER even heard that expression before you! And now its a huge part of who I am and how I live my life. It is how I see the world to be honest (lol) I have always treasured all the little things you shared with your students...so although your a great teacher--the fact that you were so curious and would verbalize questions to us that you pondered and were just cool! really just a cool person--very humble and down to earth and had a conversational way of teaching and learning. It seemed like a college course. we all got into it and it was fun.
THANK YOU- really thank you. you reached me....and although you may have had tons of students before and after me---you were supposed to know TODAY that you really made a difference in MY life.
hey I still remember "do something" can you help me get involved in that? I know its my first year but I want to be like you ....and really encourage my 4th graders...call me or email me...loooooovee you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! --S.V.-
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Mental Potpourri by Lynn
I just found another pair of Lynn's writings!!! I can't help being excited. Could it be she is sending them to me or me to them? I have hungered for something more she'd left behind all this time. I searched all over her pc after she and our father's funerals, hungry for the few gems that I did find then. I don't know why I never looked so thoroughly through her laptop. Am I wrong? I mean, she had to know there'd at least be the possibility that we'd go through all of her things--including on her computers--and she had plenty of time to get rid of anything she did not want others to find. That's it then! These are her last gifts to us and that's that!
Mental Potpourri
February 4, 2006
The only choices are fear or faith.
I want to rage! “Sike”, no, I don’t…but isn’t that how I should be feeling?
What does it mean that I have no rage, no anger and no sadness about a life which has been wasted? Does it mean that I have lived a good life, filled with love and happiness? Does it mean that I really do believe that the pain or sadness that we experience makes us appreciate the good times? Is life really a roller coaster ride filled with ups and downs…but all of it thrilling? Is my glass always half full and never half empty? Let’s see, what else have I been telling Gia all these years…
Success should be designed by each person for themselves. For me, it has nothing to do with climbing the corporate ladder or making a six figure income. My wealth has always been about love and how much of it I have…creativity and much of it I can use…courage/faith and much of both of those I am willing to use. Climbing the corporate ladder was fun for me, as long as I was climbing to a new position that would entertain me. Making more money allowed me to do things for others or play a little harder. Neither are things that I put on my success page. My success page is filled with the people I’ve loved, the people I’ve helped, the people that I have inspired to be the best that they can be and things which have celebrated or showed off the gifts and talents that God gave me. The most fun & pain that I’ve ever had has been on the projects that I created out of thin air, nothing but a thought or nothing but a feeling that “I think I can”.
February 4, 2006
Have our jobs become our identity? What happens when, what was once the biggest focus of our lives (our jobs) become the smallest fish in our pond…Or that job no longer exists due to illness, retirement or loss of that job. Who are we then?
How are you introduced at a dinner party? What do you say when that dreaded question comes up “So, what do you do?” If you answer truthfully are you dismissed as un-important or un-interesting? What do we put on our business cards? Do we even carry cards anymore?
Mental Potpourri
February 4, 2006
The only choices are fear or faith.
I want to rage! “Sike”, no, I don’t…but isn’t that how I should be feeling?
What does it mean that I have no rage, no anger and no sadness about a life which has been wasted? Does it mean that I have lived a good life, filled with love and happiness? Does it mean that I really do believe that the pain or sadness that we experience makes us appreciate the good times? Is life really a roller coaster ride filled with ups and downs…but all of it thrilling? Is my glass always half full and never half empty? Let’s see, what else have I been telling Gia all these years…
Success should be designed by each person for themselves. For me, it has nothing to do with climbing the corporate ladder or making a six figure income. My wealth has always been about love and how much of it I have…creativity and much of it I can use…courage/faith and much of both of those I am willing to use. Climbing the corporate ladder was fun for me, as long as I was climbing to a new position that would entertain me. Making more money allowed me to do things for others or play a little harder. Neither are things that I put on my success page. My success page is filled with the people I’ve loved, the people I’ve helped, the people that I have inspired to be the best that they can be and things which have celebrated or showed off the gifts and talents that God gave me. The most fun & pain that I’ve ever had has been on the projects that I created out of thin air, nothing but a thought or nothing but a feeling that “I think I can”.
February 4, 2006
Have our jobs become our identity? What happens when, what was once the biggest focus of our lives (our jobs) become the smallest fish in our pond…Or that job no longer exists due to illness, retirement or loss of that job. Who are we then?
How are you introduced at a dinner party? What do you say when that dreaded question comes up “So, what do you do?” If you answer truthfully are you dismissed as un-important or un-interesting? What do we put on our business cards? Do we even carry cards anymore?
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