365 Days Of Love. Day 71

I left for work later than usual today, 7:05. I had barely passed the park next to my apartment complex and I received a text from my roommate

“Your lunch!”

I’m losing my mind. I religiously pack my lunch the night before (18 hours before it will be consumed). In the morning, to prevent leaving it in the fridge, I set it on the counter while I poor my daily glass of grapefruit juice. Despite following my regular routine to a tee, a still managed to walk out of the house without my makeshift lunch bag accompanying my workout bag and school bag. Since I wasn’t far from home, I flipped around quickly and rushed home and retrieved my lunch. All that being said, by the time I left my house for the second time this morning, I left later than the later I usually left for work.

Even though I had every single paper set for today’s lesson, the objective written on the board, the desks clean and tidy begging for bright eyed students, I felt anxious about my “just on time” arrival (as opposed to my normal arrival of at least 18 minutes before the sign-in time). After aggressively parking my car and speed waking into the school building to sign in, I rushed to my classroom.

To my surprise, two of my boys were awaiting me.

“Good morning, Miss.”

“Hi, guys”

“Here, Miss.”

With that, they held out a large bag of pistachios, my favorite snack. Jesus, one of the boys, is notorious for selling treats (generally chili covered candy or hot cheetos) out of his backpack so I immediately asked

“How much?”

“Nothing, miss, they are for you. We bought them for you.”

“Are you sure? The whole thing?”

(Between 14 year old boy giggles) “Yessssss, Misssssss, they are for you, all of them.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you boys so much. That is so sweet, I’ll be happy to share with you when I see you in class later today.”

And, with that, any anxiety I had about arriving (almost) late to work washed away like my pasty white skin under the South Texas sun. There is so much power is such a small gift given with genuine intentions. My sweet boys, Alexis and Jesus, taught me that loving is surprising people with sweet little gifts accompanied by pure intents.