"for ms. isler keep"

A few weeks ago, I unearthed an old lunchbox, and in repurposing it, found a note from a student from last year inside.

I remember this note. Very clearly. It was about this time of year, last year, when I presented each student with a brand new box of crayons. For most of them, it was just the second box that they brought at the beginning of the school year, but it was exciting nonetheless. Everyone got brand new crayons and it became an exciting week. Most of the class chose to put all their new crayons in their pencil pouch with their old ones. I didn’t really care how they chose to use them. But one of my students didn’t quite see it that clearly. And I’m not sure where he got the Ziploc bag, or where he got the tape, or even when he did this, but at one point, there it was. On my desk. All of his old crayons in a snack size Ziploc bag with a note taped on it that said “for ms. isler keep“ in that very distinctive handwriting he so clearly has, rarely a capital letter and all of the letters exactly the same size. A student of few words, who kept true to that even in this note.

His intentions were for me to keep his old crayons. Which was very nice of him, as I used old crayons often. A student would come to me complaining that they were missing some color of crayon and I would dig into my bin of old crayons and give them one of that color. Most often my crayons are simply the ones found on the floor. And now I had a nice full-sized set. No broken pieces at all. So I put the crayons in my old crayons bin behind my desk, and I took that note, and I stuck it to the cinderblock wall right behind where I sat.

And at the end of the year, when I took everything off of the wall, I didn’t throw it away. Somehow it ended up in this old lunchbox, until a few weeks ago, when I removed it, and stuck it to my kitchen cabinet. Now, every night, I stand at the kitchen counter and while I make my sandwich for the next day, I read that note, in his distinctive handwriting. And every time, I picture his voice saying, “for ms. isler keep.”