Those Monday nights at Starbucks have opened up some great conversations, opportunities for me to let the students into my life, to understand my heartaches, my struggles, and my joys. I teach at a Christian school, and so issues of faith are frequent topics of conversation, especially how to make faith real. We’ve talked about “the church” and its strengths and weaknesses. We’ve talked about how faith applies practically to our lives. We’ve talked about hypocrisy and suffering and media and relationships and fears and the future. And I’ve been able to share with them what my faith looks like-how does faith affect the way I’ve handled tragedy? How does it affect me when life is really good? How does it affect the decisions I make every day? It’s one thing for them to hear teachers talk about these things, but to see them practiced in someone’s life is a tangible, relevant lesson that lasts.

When I think about the ways I invest in my students, I sometimes feel more like a farmer than I do a teacher. Farmers plant seeds in empty fields and wait to bring in the harvest. They choose the seeds to plant carefully, and they know exactly what they will reap from those seeds. In the same way, I can plant specific seeds-teach specific lessons-that will bear specific fruit in my students’ lives. The difference between me and the farmer is that he cannot plant seeds without realizing it. He does it intentionally, and if he doesn’t make the effort, nothing gets planted. As a teacher, however, I plant seeds every day. My actions, attitudes, and words plant either rotten or healthy seeds in the minds and lives of my students, so I must be very careful. Like the farmer, I must be intentional in what I plant, and pour into my students only that which will produce good fruit in them.

With every single student I come in contact with, I have not just an opportunity, but a responsibility, to model for them a life of character, of integrity, purity, love, hope, patience, kindness, generosity, selflessness, peace, discipline. They see the way I handle stress, the imperfections of life and sometimes even my temper. I am a representative of the “grown-up world” to them. They see everything I do, hear everything I say, whether I realize it or not. Seeds are planted. I do make a difference in their lives.

The truth is, we all make a difference in someone’s life. We don’t have to be teachers to teach. We don’t need a platform to be someone’s role model. Someone is watching the way you live, and if you make an impact on them, they will one day live a life that is like your own. They will invest in others as they have seen you invest in people. They will be kind as they have seen you be kind. Or if all they have seen is selfishness, they will be selfish, too.

Knowing that others will follow in my footsteps gives me a greater passion to live life right. It has been said that character is who you are when no one is looking, but I have found there is always someone looking. The first time I truly realized this was during my first year of teaching. It was a Saturday, and I was grocery shopping. As I walked from the parking lot into the store, I heard someone call “Miss Calvert!” Still unused to being called “Miss,” it took a few minutes for me to catch on. On the weekends, I’m just Rita. Or at least I used to be. When I finally realized someone was trying to get my attention, I looked around to see one of my 7th grade boys and his mom. At that particular moment, I have to admit that I was slightly annoyed that my “job” had come crashing into my “regular life.” What I have since realized is that my “job"-investing in students-is my life. Whether I am in the classroom or on vacation, they will be there. They will be watching. And rather than just let them observe from the outside, why not invite them in?

Just as a farmer is responsible for the crop he grows, I am responsible for what I teach my students. I believe that I will one day give an account for every word I have spoken, every lesson I have taught, every seed I have planted-whether they were intentional or not. And when I see the proof in my own life that “you reap what you sow,” that I invest in students the way Pam invested in me, I realize anew the magnitude of my responsibility. I am not simply teaching students-I am teaching my own children’s teachers. This field is holy ground.