how some small things are big and meaningful

When Ruth invited to write about "big", several things popped into my mind, like being the first Estonian exchange student studying at Smith College after the collapse of Soviet Union, greeting a new years in Space Needle Centre, dancing in Leibowitz Palace in Prague, standing on the Great Wall of China, admiring van Gogh paintings in Amsterdam, drinking tea with a buddhist monk, the tulip fields of Netherlands, listening to Barak Obama speech in Tallinn, the sea in all its forms. These things are big. I have written about these before. 

Today my "big" is seemingly so small, making some people shrug their shoulders, or these things might go unnoticed altogether. For me these things are big. 

We have had glorious June so far. For the past few days the weather has been sunny and sweltering hot. The last week of school during such time is tough. Adults are tired, kids wild, and emotions run the show. My eyes wanted to pop out of the sockets from all the report comment reading, my head roll off the shoulders from sleep deprivation headache, and I have had the urge to cry more than once this week. I cried twice. Once from watching Grey Anatomy and then yesterday, when the small things showed up in the evening. 

I had finished reading all the lower school report comments except my own student reflections. Here comes the first seemingly small really big thing. A boy who for months was convinced he was not creative, admitted that he had grown as a creative thinker, and that he felt proud of having written a fictional narrative and several poems, things he hadn't been able to do last year. My eyes swelled.

Before closing my laptop, I checked the school email one last time and discovered that another boy had sent me some poems. He had written six super sweet short poems, all for me. In one poem he said he'd name a new pokemon he catches after me. The tears trickled down.

After closing my laptop I opened a thank you card I had received from a parent. In between the card was a whole page long thank you letter. In the most beautiful words she showed her appreciation for my help to his son, for my work as a teacher and for my support to her as she transitioned to a new country and new culture. Now I bawled. Gratitude is an enormous gift.  

The final big, sometimes underrated thing is a hug. After months of masks and social distancing a hug is a mighty thing. Today was filled with goodbye hugs, thank you hugs and some long-time-not-seen hugs. I fully agree with the mole from "The Boy, the Mole, The Fox and the Horse" that a hug is better than a cake. Not that I would ever say no to a piece of cake. ;)