Dear Mrs. Hughes

Dear Mrs. Hughes,

How are you? How have you been doing? Has life been going well?

These are questions that cannot fully express how much I want to thank you for your guidance, even if only for a couple of months. You may have forgotten but this is a key moment in my life that I’ll never forget.

You gave our class a writing assignment with some prompts. The prompt I chose was “beggars can’t be choosers” as well as another prompt on two young lovers. I was so excited to write not one, but two different stories and to go wherever my imagination took me.

I stayed up later to finish the assignment. Back then, we didn’t use laptops and computers to write our essays and assignments. It was all paper and pen. We had exercise books with lines and had to use them for our homework. Being in boarding school, they called it prep. My handwriting was messy but I tried my best to keep it legible.

I had an idea about a boy who was a beggar but longed to be with a family. He would look in the window of a happy family during Christmas and have such a deep and despairing desire to be able to join in the present swapping and the caroling. In the end, he found out he was related somehow to the family in the window and it was a happily ever after.

When you started handing our workbooks back in class, you announced that you were going to be reading someone’s story. You praised the work for being original and well thought out, and you were proud to be the teacher who marked the assignment.

At first, I was embarrassed to hear my story being read aloud. I covered my eyes and squeaked in shyness.

But as you read the story with such gumption and excitement, your passion filtered into me and I felt proud too. You even asked for my permission to read the second story aloud.

I wasn’t sure back then that writing was my passion but now I started grasping the truth that I had fallen in love with creative writing.

Fast forward to 2022 and I had my Masters interview today for Literary Studies. I felt slightly disappointed with myself, as my research and academic writing is not my strength compared to creative writing in novels and poetry. I couldn’t show and relate my strengths that well during the interview.

Yet I am never truly discouraged because I believe in the power of my writing the way you believed in my words all those years ago. Words cannot express how thankful I am to you for kickstarting my days and nights working on my creative ideas. I will always remember your big smile and kindness showed to me that I didn’t deserve.

You were the first person who truly celebrated my creative writing. And that means the world to me. I am enclosing a poem for you in this letter. I hope it finds you one day.

The first person who believed

in my abilities was you

The first person who was so proud

of my words was you

You inspire me to be my best

To be an incredible writer

And encourager of people

The way you encouraged me

The way you mentored me

The way you cheered for me

The way you walked with me

Is a gift I can never repay

All your love will stay

In me and with every breath

I breathe I will write and keep

writing with a flame in my soul

for you made me bold enough to

share my words with

the whole wide world

Love,

Amanda