Dear Mr. Stein,
Thank you for impacting and influencing my life these last three years. This year ends your mentoring and teaching for me. My social skills improved greatly because of your influence. I now converse more easily with the teachers and enjoy acting quirky to make new friends. Learning from you helped me find comfort in the new middle school system. And even though I caused a ruckus, you helped me throughout my middle school years.

Each day you put up with a rowdy class of middle schoolers and rarely lose your patience. Sometimes my behavior and Sara’s progresses to a much more enthusiastic state; causing you to lose your cool a few times. But in the end we always seem to make things right and I admire your patience with us. Your ability to make sure no one feels left out and your talent to make certain times awkward shows leadership. I always see students smiling when I walk into the classroom (besides the times you disapprove of it). In life skills, you include everyone in a conversation about any random topic. When the first week of school ended, I knew all the students enjoyed your class. When you act awkward, it results in a laugh, even with those who entered the classroom in a grumpy mood. Remembering the first year you taught middle school, in the first Language Arts class with us; stays memorable to me.

Knowing you place faith in our work and ourselves, makes me appreciate you. Often, if our grades lower or we feel out of it, you try and find a way to make us energetic again. Sometimes it may not work to a certain extent, but we still muster up a small amount to keep us going. When you attempt a joke and no one laughs; the fact the joke ended badly, makes us laugh on our own. I also appreciate how much effort you put into helping us finish our work. Sometime recently, some friends and I needed to finish a project. We worked in your classroom after we kindly asked you. By lunchtime you said, “If you want to continue to work, I can run down quickly to the teacher’s cafeteria to get my lunch. You guys just have to wait for me outside of the classroom.” We followed your instructions and when you came back, we worked some more. By the end of lunch, the four of us completed the project.

For three years, you took on the challenge called Liana. Thank you for putting up with me and helping me along the way. Thank you for never backing down. Thank you for everything.

P.S. Keep your face red.