The Book of Helen was created by my camp kids from last summer. I had written them all letters in the beginning of camp so they decided to return the gesture at the end. I participated in an international summer camp called SIG. SIG stood for Summer Institute for the Gifted. These students ranged from 11-15 years old. They all had to apply in order to be accepted and many of them had to be in the 95 percentile. That summer, SIG took place at Princeton University and it was such a gorgeous campus. I had eight students of my own who I spent three weeks with.

This book is comprised of eight entries, each with their individual responses to me. The cover page is hot pink and the pages are alternating yellow and neon green. On the cover page, “The Book of” is in black ink and “Helen” is in blue caps. The subtitle says “Summer of 2018” in black ink. The bottom of the cover page listed all eight authors. The pages, along with the cover is 8.5 inches by 11 inches. The last page is also hot pink and it has my turtle door tag on it. I had made all my students turtle door tags because our hall was “underwater” themed. Each page displayed a different kind of handwriting, each unique to the individual who wrote to me. Some of the pages had drawings at the top, bottom or side to illustrate our times together or individual conversations we had. Some handwriting was neat and big while others were big and had to read. Some pages were decorated with colors of the rainbow and written in gel pen. The writing in gel pen sparkled under the light. One student had cut out the bottom of the card to make a heart and had decorated the borders with lines.

I had an amazing time that summer and this book will forever remind me of those moments. They wrote about the stories I would tell about my life because I wanted them to know that even though I was older, I can still relate to them on some degree. We had many talks about school, careers and boys. The student on the first page wrote about how she was going to miss the patterned knock on their door every morning to make sure they were awake. She even drew a sequential picture of how they were late on one of my day offs. It says, “We woke up late, we missed you and we were malnourished”. The second entry was longer and about how she was nervous coming to sleepaway but I was always there whenever she needed me and she appreciated that a lot. She even mentioned the night I was on duty and she wasn’t supposed to be showering, but rather in bed, and I warned her to rush back into her room. At the end of the entry, she wrote “You were like my second mom, thanks for taking care of me!” The third entry will always make me laugh because there was a running joke that I didn’t socialize enough in my life so therefore I was a “grandma”. At the bottom, she wrote “Never grow old Grandma Helen”. She also wrote that she wished she had more space because there was so much still unsaid. The fourth entry was a girl from India. She was so different and energetic. She wrote about how I would always laugh with her when she performed her ice skating routines. These “ice skating routines” were where she swirled around and around twirling her legs until she was super dizzy and would fall. It seemed that she was always on a sugar high and that kept the rest of the group going. She ended up going back to India and I will miss her a lot.

The fifth entry was written by a girl from Russia who was staying in the local area with family. She was a commuter but nonetheless, part of the family. She wrote about our trip to NYC and how she enjoyed every minute even though it was chaotic. At the bottom, she wished me all the luck in my teaching career because she had no doubts that I will be great. The sixth entry was written by a girl who gave me the hardest time at camp. She didn’t respond well to authority and it took some time, but I slowly won her over. In her letter, she apologized for all the times she was difficult and wished me all the best in the world. I appreciated it and accepted her apology. The last two entries were written by two international students from Asia, one was from mainland China and one was from Vietnam. The girl from Vietnam also wrote about our adventures through the city and the local town of Princeton. The girl from China wrote a short letter, but it still warmed my heart. She had came to me towards the end asking how she could apply for this program next year and be my student again. I gave her all the proper resources since I wasn’t sure of the progress. She compared me to her sisters back home and loved that I reminded her of them.  

I realized that even though we took our separate ways and there were a lot of tears on the last day, this isn’t the end. This book will forever be a token of my experience, something I hope to do again in the future. Mementos such as this one, will continue to inspire me to pursue teaching. I hope to come back in another summer and maybe I will see my girls again. I told them that maybe one day they will see me on the streets and recognize me. I told them that they had their whole lives ahead of them and maybe one day we will bump into each other on a corner or street. The international students can travel to America and I can travel abroad. Destiny works in mysterious ways and you never know, we may cross paths again.