The Fertile Crescent & A Calling

Dear Ms. Harper,
It’s Teacher Appreciation Week. My daughter, the Bug, checked out a book on Egypt from the library. Last night she was reading to me about papyrus. I flashed back to Language Arts/ Social Studies at Meyzeek Middle School. I mean, it was like I was THERE. It took my breath away. Remember when we were studying Mesopotamia, and the Tigris and Euphrates, the Fertile Crescent? And you had us construct a book out of construction paper for a child to read? We were to include a map, information on scribes, papyrus. OH MY STARS did I work on that book. I cut and pasted and wrote in my best handwriting. I bound the pages together by looping light blue yarn through punched out holes on the spine. I took my creation up to the front of the class, where you were seated on a stool watching your flock. You smiled and told me I had found my calling. You said I was going to be an author someday, and you wanted the first autographed copy of my book. Truth be told, I replay that moment often in my mind.
Until then, I’d never thought of writing as a calling. I mean, I’ve loved to write since I could scribble on an empty page. In second grade, I devoured The Chronicles of Narnia and wondered if someday I could create a book for a child to get lost in? Mom and Dad (my biggest fans) were forever giving me notebooks, steno pads, journals (still do!) to write in. I carried them everywhere. (A trait –big smile-- I've apparently passed on to the Bug, who refuses to leave the house without at least one notebook.)
Anyway, I’m not sure if you still live in Louisville. But I want you to know that I am working hard on writing a story that will be published someday. And when it is, I’ll look you up! Because I'll be setting aside a special copy:
For Ms. Harper, Who Helped Me Hear My Calling.
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
I appreciate you more than you know,
Leigh Peyton