Margaret's Story  PRO

MARGARET’S STORY

A young woman named Margaret had spent decades battling depression and anxiety that were traced back to a horrible day in school when a Teacher, frustrated with her tardiness, made her stand in front of the room and invited all the students to come up to the board and write something bad about her on the chalkboard. The kids were ruthless. They wrote things like "Margaret is ugly!", "Margaret smells" and "Margaret is stupid." All twenty-five students went up to the board and wrote these hurtful things. This event inflicted wounds that Margaret found difficult to heal. She battled depression, discouragement, and was angry all the time. Finally she went to a psychologist for help. She spent two years meeting weekly but finally they had reached the end of their sessions.

The counselor said, "Margaret, I know this will be difficult, but just to make sure you’re ready to move on, I am going to ask you to do something. I want to go back to your schoolroom and detail the events of that day. Take your time. Describe each of the children as they approach the blackboard, remember what they wrote and how you felt--do this for all twenty-five students.

In a way, this would be easy for Margaret. For forty years she had remembered every detail. And yet, to go through the nightmare one more time would take every bit of strength she had. After a long silence, she began the painful description. One by one, she described each of the students vividly, as though she had just seen them, stopping periodically to regain her composure, forcing herself to face each of those students one more time.

Finally she was done, and the tears would not stop, could not stop. Margaret cried a long time before she realized someone was whispering her name. "Margaret, Margaret, Margaret." She looked up to see her counselor staring into her eyes, saying her name over and over again. Margaret stopped crying for moment.

"Margaret, you left out one person."

"I certainly did not! I have lived with this story for forty years. I know every student by heart."

"No, Margaret, you did forget someone. See, he’s sitting in the back of the...