Sydney Rosenthal

What is a legacy if you have no one to share it with?

I find it difficult to define things that aren’t tangible

How do you wrap your head around something that you are constantly creating but that won't matter until you leave this Earth

When I was younger I cared more about my legacy, about the impact I would leave on the world

I had dreams of curing cancer, of winning a Nobel prize

Of truly making a name for myself

But my biggest goal was always to be happy and I’m still trying to figure out the best way to accomplish that

For the past few years that has been my only goal

Ms.Vicky is happy

And it’s infectious

When I think back to the teachers who have made the biggest impact on me they are all Black Older women

Single, but by choice

Fiercely independent

Yet warm

Someone both organized and a mess

Maybe that’s why even though I’m almost 30 I still feel the need to say, Ms.Vicky

When everyone else just calls her by her name

I view her as a teacher and I an eager child

Ms.Vicky is turning “70 something” this week but you would never know it

Her gray curls bouncing and full

Her gapped, unperfect smile showing when she laughs unapologetically

Every morning without fail she has a “Goodmorning, Baby!” for me

The office is under construction, a project that’s been going on for 7 months and doesn’t seem to have an end date

So We’re all forced to work in the basement

A space that despite having six cubicles -Ms.Vicky used to have all to herself

Her office supplies taking up the drawers of two desks

The mystery novels that she never has the chance to read, in the cabinet of another

She says that she liked it more when she was alone, but I don’t believe her

Maybe a part of her wants to like the quiet, the calm

But if she wanted to be alone why would she always have a Tupperware full of candy on her desk

An offering that is only available when she’s present and with the expectation that if you take a piece you will spend some time gossiping in return

Food is one of Ms.Vicky’s ways of showing she cares

When I was feeling down she would pass me bags of trail mix

When I am working hard she offers me dark chocolate

She says she's always happy to come to work

She calls the staff her family

But she has a family, 2 sons, 9 grandkids and nearly as many great grandchildren

Something I can never imagine

I knew at 16 that I wasn’t going to have biological children yet I would never tell Ms.Vicky that

Although understanding I doubt she’d understand that choice

Ms. Vicky lights up when she talks about her babies

The happiest I’ve seen Ms.Vicky is when our coworker brought in her newborn baby,

The logical side of her saying “shes crazy bringing that baby in here with all these germs”

The emotional side of her saying “ did you se him? Isn’t he perfect?”

And I have to agree, I’ve never seen a more perfect baby in my life

Is it more important to continue your legacy through family or through actions?

And who cares about what your legacy is

Or who will impact your legacy

Ms.Vicky will be forever engrained in my memory

Ms.Vicky taught me how to be kind to everyone even if you don’t like them

How to find joy in life and choose happiness

To believe that everything will turn out

And maybe that is the point of a legacy, to have it live on in others.