Final THPR Prompt

What’s the nicest compliment you ever received? Why was it so meaningful to you?

The school I attended for the longest period of time (given my military brat nomad upbringing) was Hickman Elementary in the San Diego Unified School District. I recall that I wasn’t actually zoned for it, but they let my siblings and I attend because of the military connection (the school that we were zoned for was rough). (This is all filtered through a 10 year old’s mind and memories and a 35-year passage of time, but it’s what I recall).

My sixth grade teacher at Hickman was Mrs. Therieau, and she was fairly old when I was there so she must be long retired (and possibly has shuffled off this mortal coil, God bless you wherever you be, lady). I do not recall much about why Mrs. Therieau gave me a box of crayons – one of the big ones, with a sharpener in the box, brand new. I think each of us probably had a turn at “student of the week” and received a small gift after performing our helper duties, although that’s just a guess. Along with the gift was a card addressed to me, and inside Mrs. Therieau wrote: “You have beauty, brains, and a loving heart.”

It has been thirty-five years and if I close my eyes I can still see those words in her beautiful looping cursive handwriting. They were like a shot to my heart – they winnowed themselves deep down and took up permanent residence. So often it is hurtful words that do that – and I have plenty of those memories living in me as well – but on this occasion, it was a kindness that stamped itself in my mind, marked me as a person with beauty, a person with brains, a person with a loving heart. My elementary years were not unhappy ones, and I remember Hickman Elementary dimly but with fuzzy fondness. As you can expect for a pre-pubescent girl, though, I had self esteem issues – self doubt – certain of my inferiority, especially in the “looks” department. But wait! Mrs. Therieau said I had beauty! And brains and a loving heart, but most importantly beauty! Mrs. Therieau sees me, and I am valuable!

Odd, isn’t it, how some things stick with you? So much falls away. How lovely that one of the things that has been riding shotgun with me through life all this time is such a simple and kind message.