Getting inside the classroom every day and trying to cope with all those students who have different personalities and learn using different strategies isn’t that easy. However, watching a shy student raising their hand and speaking in front of the whole class, or seeing a struggling student getting an ‘A’ makes you realize that it’s all worth it. It requires only special people to be teachers, because not everyone can rise to the task of shaping young minds into compassionate and responsible people who’d become a valuable part of the community.
The ideal teachers always go the extra mile just to make sure their students are doing their best to achieve the most they can. This help usually expands outside of the classroom too. And even if this effort may not be recognized by the parents, the school’s principal, or the community, that doesn’t really mater, because teachers know how great of an impact they make.
One physical education teacher from Valdosta, Georgia was giving his students a lesson in basketball when one of them, a girl named Kristin Paulk, approached and asked him whether he could do her a favor. The teacher said yes even before he knew what she would ask. The girl then said: “Can you tie my hair in a ponytail?” The teacher didn’t think twice before he knelt down and started doing her hair. Meanwhile, a fellow colleague named Kandice Anderson noticed the quite unusual sight and decided to put it on tape. She later posted the video on her Facebook page, writing:
“When your job goes beyond teaching… #CoachO #Love”
Kandice only wanted to show her friends what it really takes to be a teacher, and never did she think the video would be seen more than 3 million times. The phys ed teacher had no idea his kind act vent viral and he became famous. People found this way too adorable, and he was featured on Good Morning America.
“It was shocking to me that it got that much attention because we all do it.”
The teacher has three children on his own so he happens to know how to make a ponytail. He jokes how his expertise in hair styling stops there and if sweet Kristin wanted a more complex hairstyle she should have probably asked someone else to do it for her.
Kristin’s mother was also a guest at Good Morning America where she shared how she felt like after watching the video. She says she is more than happy knowing her girl has a teacher who cares so much.
We hope there are more teachers like this coach out there, who would do anything for their students’ well being.
This video is the sweetest thing you’ll see all day.
The Ring and the Revelation
I had planned it for months. Every extra shift, every skipped luxury, every penny saved went towards that little box. It wasn’t the biggest diamond, I knew that. But it was elegant, minimalist, exactly what I thought she’d appreciate. It felt like us – understated, genuine, built on something real, not flashy. I was so proud of it, so proud of the effort, so hopeful for the future it represented.
The moment arrived, the words tumbled out, earnest and heartfelt. I opened the box, my heart pounding with a mixture of nerves and pure, unadulterated love. And then, she looked at it. Not at me, not at the significance of the gesture, but at the ring itself.
Her reaction wasn’t joy, or tears, or even surprise. It was a dismissive glance, a slight frown, and then, she took the box from my hand and tossed it aside. “The diamond is too small,” she said, as if commenting on a minor imperfection in a piece of furniture.
My world tilted. The air left my lungs. Broken. That’s the only word that comes close. I felt utterly broken, exposed, and profoundly helpless. All the effort, all the love, all the hope – reduced to the size of a stone. It wasn’t just the ring she had rejected; it felt like she had rejected me, the part of me that had worked so hard, that loved her enough to offer everything I had. Her words, her casual dismissal, crushed me in a way I hadn’t thought possible.
I don’t remember exactly what I said, or if I said anything at all. I just remember the feeling of numb disbelief as I bent down, picked the small, rejected symbol of my love from the floor, and walked out.
Now, days later, my phone is a constant buzz. Her name flashes across the screen, message after message, call after call. She wants the ring back. Her ring, she calls it.
But honestly? Looking at the ring now, it doesn’t represent a future together anymore. It represents that moment, that crushing realization, the feeling of being utterly unseen and unappreciated. The desire, the hope, the love I felt in that moment of proposal – it’s gone. Washed away by the cold, hard truth of a diamond that was “too small.” I’m not interested anymore. Not in the ring, and not in trying to rebuild something that shattered so completely over something so superficial.
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