Postage Stamps

It used to be that people actually wrote letters to one another.  They had paragraphs and everything. Envelopes, stationery, the whole nine yards.  One thing has always amazed me to this day about letters sent in the mail.  If you sent a letter to your Grandmother in Florida, circa 1976, the price of the stamp to affix on the envelope was 13 cents.  If you sent a love note to that cute girl a few blocks away in 1976, the price of the stamp to affix on the envelope was 13 cents.  Same price.  Distance was immaterial. The sentiment expressed in the message did not change the cost of the stamp.  It could be a business letter of straightforward nature or the greatest ode to that special someone…just throw a stamp on it and all was good.  However, the one thing that every letter, package, or box, had to have was a stamp that was affixed and did not come off.  If not, you got the proverbial “Return to Sender” stamp.  Neither made Grandma nor your girlfriend especially happy.

We need to be just like a postage stamp.  We need to stick to something until we get there!  In each class, there is a set of long-term goals.  Some of these are to be mastered in a few weeks; others have a projected mastery date later in the semester or in the school year.  One thing is certain – the time to reach these goals gets shorter every day. The delivery date of your “letter” will vary.  The constant will be that a stamp on it.  Think in terms of YOU being the stamp and a stamp has to stay on the package for the entire trip.  What this means is that you will have to stay with your student’s progress toward those long-term goals the entire school year.  You cannot just rip the stamp off and not be concerned with the contents actually being delivered.  We have to stick with it!  Will there be days when you feel like the letter is still in the mailbox and no progress is being made?  Yep. Will there be days where you the progress is at a snail’s pace?  Yes, but celebrate that as progress.  Will there be “strange days indeed” as John Lennon sang about? You bet your Grannie’s cookie jar there will be!  But there will be many more days when the light bulb comes on. There will be more days when you cannot wipe the smile off of your face because “they are finally getting it!”  There will be many more days when you go home satisfied that you are making a difference.  All of these success stories take work and that cannot be dismissed.  But, like a postage stamp, you have to stick with the effort it takes!

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The Browns travel to Baltimore to face the Ratbirds, I mean, the Ravens.  Division foe, the team that was stolen from Cleveland, yah, lots of love.