Stoked

If you have ever done any sort of teaching, you know that it can be hard work. But some days, someone says or does something that really makes up for it. Today I taught a small class at our regular Barony meeting. It was one that had been planned for a while but the date was changed and sprung on me at the last minute, so I didn't have any time to promote it. But I made sure I went today even though I've been feeling pretty crap the last couple of days. I got there and not many people were there. It was Mother's Day and that kept the numbers down.

Anway, one of the girls showed some interest and three of the younger guys were all sitting there, not much doing on. So I asked if they wanted to do the class. They all sort of mumbled yes and wandered over. So I gave everyone the kits I had made up (cotton fabric, thread, needle and a loaner hoop). We got started and worked our way through the hand out. Everyone got the hang of the stitches, not perfect, but for first goes, pretty good. At the end, everyone said thanks and I left pretty early cause I wasn't feeling very good.

So I was just checking my email before packing up the computer ready for work tommorrow. And there was an email from one of the guys. He'd gone home, and used the left over materials and one of the patterns in the hand out to practice with. He sent me a scan of what he'd done. It was pretty good. He said he wanted to let me know that the lessons were actually worth something and that "I'd just like to thank you for bothering to teach".

No, Sam, thank you. Cause its emails like that that make all the bad days worth it. To paraphrase, sometimes teaching is its own reward.