Tears of Joy

I was so happy to see her. She bounced into the admissions office and said, "I'm in your Ethics class!" I immediately noticed her smile. She was just radiant. Still too skinny, but radiant.

When I finally started class, she was up front and center, eagerly answering questions and participating.

Just one quarter ago, she sat in the back corner of my English class. She spoke, but not often enough. She sat next to her husband. I noticed that she was emaciated, but I never suspected anything was wrong. She confided in her journal that her husband was beating her. Two weeks before class ended, he left her. She was a mess, without hope and confidence. The next week, he came to class with her again--(he was one of the students in the class)--and I pretended that nothing had happened in order to prevent inadvertently causing her pain that night. So long as she was going home with him, I didn't want to do anything to let him know she had betrayed their violent secret. But, one of my other students was not so cowardly. She got up to present her paper. She boldly talked for 5 minutes about the horrors of spousal abuse. It was perfect. There was no way that he would know whether his wife had said anything to anyone--but Dolly could feel our support.

Last night, I was enthralled with her joy. While doing the introductions, she proudly proclaimed to the rest of the class that she was divorcing her husband. She boldly said, "On April 22nd he broke my nose, and so I'm divorcing him." She fairly giggled at the end of that sentence.

I looked at her and said to the rest of the class, "I am trying not to cry here. I wish you could see the difference between then and now." And then we both laughed together. Her joy was infectious.

As I look at the changes, I am still grinning ear to ear--as tears slide down my cheeks. Tears of joy.

Sometimes, I really love my job.