A Pointless Exercise

(I’m taking a masters-level teaching course the summer before I start my first teaching job. The professor instructs us to bring six stamped postcards to the next class.)

Professor: “I want everyone to write six encouraging messages to yourself for different times throughout the school year. Think of the challenges you’re going to face at specific times and write yourself a note of encouragement. Then, write the dates you’d like me to mail them on the postcards and I’ll send them to you throughout the year.”

(I thought this was lame, but nonetheless, I tried. I wrote encouraging messages to myself for the first day of school, after the first month of school, Christmas break, the end of the year, etc. In December, I received every postcard in the mail on the same day. She’d apparently just mailed them all at once.)