Thankful

As part of their final grade, I required my sophomore college students to complete three essays this semester.  Their latest essay was a simple question based on our Thanksgiving lesson:  "What are you thankful for?"

I'm an easily moved person, and I didn't really think I was setting myself up to sit at home tonight, grading papers with a red pen and a box of kleenex crying my eyes out.

The sweetness of some of these young college students was just too much to keep to myself, so I thought I'd put a few excerpts here. 
Be blessed.

"I love my mother very much. Like many other Chinese women, my mother is diligent. She is engaged in agriculture but she is good teacher of my life........Every child is surrounded by the deep mother love.  However, we often turn a blind eye to the love.  One day, I deeply felt that love.  I hurried home for lunch after school because there would be an exam in the afternoon and I had expected to go back to school early to prepare for the exam. But when I got home, the lunch was not ready yet.  I felt unhappy. When the dishes was served, I found none I liked. I ran out of my house angrily and wandered on the street for a while hungry.  Then I walked to school.  When I got into the classroom, I saw a lunch box on my desk.  One classmate told me that it was my mother brought it here. After opening the box, I found my favorite food inside.  Mother gave me her love without asking for return. How deep my mothers love is."

"I was the second child in my family.  Because of the One-child Policy, my mother was forced to accept an injection which was given to my mother to accelerate her delivery, not to kill me, just so that I only stayed in her body for 7 months.  After I was born, she always worried about whether I could live.
When I had no appetite, my mother would cook pickles for me.  I was crazy about it.  My mother insists on working hard to afford my expensive college expenses.  I appreciate my mother.  She suffered many unexpected hardships, but I assured my mother that I will give her well-off life after I graduate from college."

"Thank you Lord for everything.  Even though my country is not a nation of faith and Ch-------'s are still persecuted, Thank you Lord. Here has your gracious peace and you are making the way in China. There are many people who have never heard the g----l. Even though my family is not perfect, Thank you Lord that I can see my mother, father and sister.  There are many children who have lost their family."

"Dear Mrs. Christine,
I'm writing to express my thanks for your help in learning English.  During these days in your class I have learned much from you and it is very helpful to me. I find that learning English is not a boring thing as before and I'm interested in studying English. Before, English was just a necessary task to pass examination."

"I would like to thank my parents, thank them for giving me life.  Thank them for cradling me, more importantly, no matter what, they didn't abandon me because I'm a girl."

"I'm most grateful for my father.  He is my hero.  When I was a child, he played with me. No matter how busy he was, he was willing to be my company. When I grow up, he taught me how to be a real man and how to live a meaning life. Now he is getting older and his grey hairs make me feel so sad."

"My elder sister. I love her so much. She always accompany me. When I felt sad, she comforted me. When I confused, she led me. She play mother role in my young age. Every time when I felt sad, I will call her and cry like a child. I didn't know I cried for what, but I feel relaxed."

As the saying goes, "A drop, the smallest favor." [Chinese idiom] However, parents, relatives and friends as I say are not just a "drop" but a "vast ocean".

And I have only gotten through two classes essays!  So many more talk about losing their mother or father at a young age, or waking up and coming home to an empty house because both their mother and father were working for 12 hours a day just so they could afford their high school tuition.  Some had to live with their grandparents because they were the second child born in their family and their parents were given a heavy fine for not having an abortion, and to pay for the fine, the parents would work all day and through the night to make ends meet.

I'm just in love with these students.  I have the usual, expected trouble of cell phones, plagiarism and tardiness- but that's easy to ignore when I get this rare glimpse into their secret lives and see such tenderness!