I've written birthday letters to every student I taught in my 30 years as a middle school teacher. I track these students in a journal and write whoever has a birthday coming, tracking marriages, children, careers, losses. You never know who needs encouragement today.

The years are wearing on me. Arthritis forced me to switch from handwriting to typing, but even that's becoming difficult. After nearly 90,000 letters, my body is telling me it's time to close this chapter. The connections remain though. Everyone needs to know they're remembered, that someone's still rooting for them, and I always will be.