Compassion

Both my mom and my dad are elementary school teachers, and they are very involved with the students of the whole school and their individual classroom. A few years ago my dad had a young boy in his class who did not have the best home life. His mother worked two jobs just to help them scrape by, and his dad was an alcoholic who had recently been sent to jail. Around Christmas time my dad had the class write a letter to Santa telling him what they wanted for christmas. My dad was walking around the room and looking at each students list and when he came to this particular boy his paper was blank. My dad asked him why he had not written anything down and the boy had replied that his mom had told him that they wouldn't be able to afford christmas presents this year and he felt bad asking for presents. After school that day my dad discussed this situation with my mom, and the both of them came up with an idea. My parents called the young boy's mother and asked if there is any way they could help out this year. At first the mother was hesitant, but then she thought of her children not having a Christmas and she agreed. So on Christmas morning my parents came to the family's home with a bunch of gifts for the family. My parents said the joy on the kid's faces was one of the best things they had ever seen.
The compassion my parents showed for this student was a great thing and being able to impact a child's life like they did really reassured me that teaching was what I wanted to do with my life.