To my students, on Valentine’s Day:

Yesterday lots of you asked me either jokingly or with genuine curiosity if I had a Valentine. I smiled and shook my head. One of you gazed at me with a thoughtful but troubled expression and asked why. I laughed and changed the subject.

We all carry our own quiet pain and private griefs. Mine – the ache of the absence of a dearly loved friend and man who I cared for, and who once cared for me, before deciding in a short and sudden space of time that he no longer cared for me and cared for someone else. About that, there is nothing unkind to say. Humans are complicated, our hearts are complex.

But you’ve shown me that it’s possible to go from swallowing sobs in a toilet cubicle to wiping away tears of hysterical laughter twenty minutes later, because of your bonkers antics! You’re wonderfully weird and you’ve shown me how much joy even hard days can hold.

You’ve shown me how far kindness can extend: your patience, when I’m grumpy, unclear or scatterbrained, your thoughtfulness, when you hear me humming Star Wars and the next day a lightsaber picture lands on my desk, your sweet concern as to why I didn’t have a Valentine...

And you’ve shown me what true courage looks like: you all have different struggles and some of you carry great burdens. I am in awe of how you valiantly square your shoulders and somehow still show up to school. Your suffering helps me to keep my own small sadness in perspective.

I don’t know much, but I do know Jesus. There are many kinds of broken hearts and He is the only One who can heal them. It’s His love I long for all of you to experience. His is the only love that can heal any heart of any hurt.

I’ll never be able to adequately show you your unique value, dignity and worth, but Jesus can. I’ll never be able to show you how special you are in my eyes or how infinitely more you are in His. I was never able to show that man, my friend, either.

Our friendship was a precious privilege and a gift of grace – just as teaching you is. Both have shown me the same beautiful truth in an entirely different but equally significant way – of how much a heart can hold and how it can always expand to usher in more humans – even 193 more.

I was scared of my heart becoming hardened or bitter or cynical. But you are one of the many means of grace Jesus has used to help heal this still-hurting but hopeful heart and keep it soft. He has shown me, through you, just how many different kinds of love exist.

And I only love because He first loved me.

Miss Scott. X