I've been teaching a while. Twenty-seven years, in fact. And when you've been teaching twenty-seven years, and you keep up with some of your former students, there's something amazing that happens.

You get to see them grow up.

You get to see them step into their lives, into the world as adults and selves in their own right.

I've long said that kids are presents we get to keep opening. And I think I'm right.

I think about the idea from time to time, but it really hit home for me when one of my former students, who just got her doctorate, posted the scientific article she just got published - as first author.

There's a doctor. A teacher. An event planner. A member of a band. A painter. An interviewer of celebrities. An actor. An aspiring diplomat. A corporate officer. A photographer. A mechanical engineer. A stuntwoman.

And parents. So many of them are parents, and I get to watch, and smile, and listen to my heart crackle as I see how they are working to raise beautiful, wondrous and wonder-filled humans.

I'm good with words, but I can't express how grateful I am that I knew all of these people when they were still little, and they were just learning about who they were and what they had to contribute to this big wide world.

And my current loveys? Where will they be in five years? In ten? In twenty?

I guess I'll just have to keep unwrapping.

See this baby blanket? My kiddos made it for my younger son, who's now 18. Some of them are parents now...