I moved away from Ohio about 10 years ago and recently reconnected with an old elementary school friend. During our conversation we were mentioning people from our school (Worthington estates) and I mentioned Olivia to her, asking “how is she, is she still nice, I never got to let her know that I was so thankful having her in math class!” I don’t think I could have ever imagined her replying to me that Olivia passed away. Even ten years later I still remember Olivia even from my limited interactions with her because she made me not feel alone when I moved into the Gifted and Talented math class in 5th grade. Suddenly I had no friends in the class after moving out of the regular math class. Even months into the new class I felt like I hadn’t really made friends, but honestly I was okay with it because the work was mostly individual. But at some point in the year we had a robot project that we needed to have a partner for. I remembered being so worried that I wouldn’t be able to find a partner. If I remember correctly we had to pick partners by writing down the names of three people we would want to partner with starting in order with the person we wanted to partner the most with. If you put someones name on your list and they put your name down on theirs then you would be partnered together. The only person that truly tried to make conversation with me throughout my time in the class was Olivia, we weren’t really good friends because a lot of her closest friends were in that class, but I think she noticed that I really didn’t know anyone and always said “hi” to me and made conversation here and there. When it was time to list those 3 names I remembered thinking “crap i’m going to have this project alone because no one is going to write my name down.” I decided I would put Olivia down because she was the only one I ever had a real conversation with in that class, and put two other names down of people that most definitely did not pick me. When Ms. Bates was announcing partners I remember dreading having to hear that I was alone, but she announced by name along with Olivia’s. I remember being really surprised and turning around to Olivia thinking she was probably frowning because she hadn’t put my name down, but I was very wrong because she was smiling really widely instead. I don’t think I would have remembered this incident in such detail if I hadn’t been so grateful to her. I remember asking her while working on the project together why she put my name down, and she told me that she knew I was new to the class and thought I was nice and realized because the other kids knew each other so well they may not put my name down, so she did. And she mentioned that while working on the project together we could have fun and get to know each other. And she wasn’t wrong, I think I was the happiest in the class while working on that project with her and feeling like I had finally made a friend. If I remember correctly our robot did not turn out great, but that’s okay because that wasn’t as important as the fact that I finally felt comfortable in that class because of Olivia. I never got to tell her how grateful I was that she wrote my name down, I really wish I did though. Even though I can’t tell her in person, I would like to say it now. Thank you Olivia, thank you for noticing I was alone, thank you taking an initiative to talk to me, thank you for being kind, thank you for making one of worst classes enjoyable, thank you for always having such positive energy 🙂