A ray of sunshine in the dark 

As I have mentioned in my previous post, life has been quite stressful over the last month and a half. While my February and March mood mandalas (borrowed from Boho Berry) have been quite bright, April took a major nose dive (into the blue scheme). So much so that I didn’t even bother finishing its mandala or starting a new one for May. I have been tracking my mood on my phone though and the results are not thrilling.

You might notice a bright spike in the end though. This is the ONLY time I have EVER given myself a 5. It was a very special moment in my life. After several months of planning, I finally got a chance to see my elementary school ESL teacher, who lives in a different state.

When my parents decided to move to America in 1992, I felt like I was being uprooted against my will. While I was generally a very amenable child, this drastic change brought out the rebel in me. I had no say in the matter and saw no reason to live by a new set of rules in a foreign country. I was especially resistant to learning the English language.

And then I met my ESL teacher. Next to my grandmother, she was one of the kindest, most gentle and wonderful people I have ever met. And that holds true to the present day. She was the first ray of sunshine that I saw in this country and she made me want to learn. Over the decades that passed, I have kept the fondest of memories of her in a very special place in my heart.

By some lucky coincidence, we managed to find each other on Facebook a few years ago. Now I will readily admit that I am a very passive Facebook user. I open it once in a blue moon and, as a friend joked, will just “like” something at most. But one way or another we started keeping an eye on each other. We had a couple half-joking exchanges about meeting up sometime, but I didn’t really count on it. And then a couple weeks ago, I suddenly received a message that she is coming to New York! She was going to a wedding and had an hour between her arrival and the beginning of festivities.

We met up in a historical bakery in Little Italy and couldn’t get enough of each other. It has been 26 years since I met her. So many fond memories! One particularly memorable event was how she gave me one of her fancy dresses to use as a princess costume for the school Halloween Parade. Apparently, she remembered it as well.

After a relatively stressful day in my job search, this hour of meeting with her rekindled some of the most positive emotions in my life. As I was leaving to go see a friend, who just gave birth, I almost had tears in my eyes – it was so heartwarming to reflect on the tremendous positive impact she had on my life.

Daily prompt:  Impression