Appropriate for Third Graders (Really!)

I received more cards from another third grade class, this time from a teacher friend in New York State. Unlike my previous reaction to a similar situation, I decided to write an actual response to the class. Hopefully they are able to get something out of it!

Dear Mrs. Mellon’s Third Grade Class,

“Your Heart should be filled with Happiness, Not Sadness” – That is a quote from one of your cards…and you have no idea how right you are.

Please allow me to express my sincerest gratitude to your entire class for the wonderful care package of cards, letters, stories, words of wisdom and art projects that I received in the mail. If you do not remember, my name is Jason and I am a very good friend of Mrs. Mellon’s.

I live in Denver, Colorado (somebody get up and point to that on the map right now, I’M SERIOUS. Now point to Rochester, New York. DO IT.) Now somebody raise their hand and tell Mrs. Mellon one fact about Denver or Colorado. Good job. Any others?

When I was growing up I wanted to be a Geography Teacher, so I’m glad we were able to have this lesson. Mrs. Mellon will be issuing me a report on your learnings.

Anyway, Mrs. Mellon told you that I was recently diagnosed with “Leukemia” which is a form of Cancer, a disease that lives in my body. It’s not like other cancers you may have heard about that make tumors inside of you; it’s more of an “overall body cancer” thing. Don’t worry, though, it’s a very rare disease and I’m going to be totally fine very soon.

How does one get better from Cancer? Well I’m sure many of you may have heard about Chemotherapy, Radiation and surgeries that go in and physically cut out cancer tumors. I bet many of you in this room know somebody that has had to go through one of these procedures, is that true?

Well I’m not a Doctor, but I do know a thing or two about Cancer at this point, and I wanted to fill you guys in on a new and exciting way to fight the disease: you’re going to think it’s silly, but it’s called “Positive Perspective.”

What is “Positive Perspective?” Think about Peter Pan. Yes, it takes some fairy dust for the characters to fly, but it’s really the “Happy Thought” that gets their feet off the ground! The Fairy dust is the medicine that helps my body but the the Happy Thought is the “Positive Perspective” that helps the rest of me….and it REALLY WORKS! I feel it every day.

Yes, I am sick. Yes, my body hurts. Yes, it is hard to get out of bed and smile some days, but more often than not I actually truly feel GOOD because I’m always using my “Positive Perspective!” This doesn’t only work for cancer and disease, though… it works on EVERYTHING!! Whenever you have a bad day, or you don’t do so well on an assignment, or your big brother is being a jerk…you just have to use your “Positive Perspective” and everything will start to get better for you. It may not totally fix your problems, but I promise you that it will help you deal with them in a helpful way.

Here are actual real examples from my life: :

I went out of my way to decorate my hospital room with fun colors:

My crazy expensive important medical equipment is covered with bright fun things like scarves and feather boas JUST FOR FUN:

I dress up funny compared to other people who are normally stuck in the hospital, and I go out of my way to make all of my nurses and doctors laugh whenever they are around me.

I can’t tell you why, from a scientific perspective, this works… but I can absolutely tell you that it makes me FEEL better from the inside out and thus I know it is helping my body fight off the cancer.

I’d like to thank you all especially for helping me with my “Positive Perspective.” The cards, letters, stories, artwork that you sent me made me SO HAPPY when I looked through them. The smiles that you gave me mean more to me than I can explain.

The Valentine’s Day Cards were all beautiful and sweet. I appreciate all of the wishes for me to feel better. The images of smiling hearts absolutely helped! I hope you all have a wonderful valentine’s day filled with friendship and CANDY.

The crafty cards were equally impressive. I really appreciated your use of color, cartoon imagery and general silliness. Keep up the good work, guys!!! I really like the dancing blueberry and the “nothing but awesome” t-shirt.

Lastly I’d like to thank those of you that sent me samples of your writing. I’m a bit of a writer myself, so I know how hard it can be to put your thoughts down on paper, let alone give them out to a stranger to read! It’s a very brave thing to do and you guys did a great job. Fuddles seems quite the adventurous troublemaker. Onye also seems like a handful of a cat, and hopefully Mrs. Pirl doesn’t sit on her! I also appreciated, as a performer, the poem about Arianna Grande and I will hopefully find myself a dog named Snowball! I’m sure he’ll get along with my current dog, Ruby:

Oh and Preston, I’ve been playing Mario Kart since before you were born. Seriously! I got my first Nintendo in 1992 (I’m OLD) when Mario Kart first came out and I’ve been playing versions of it ever since! I used to have Mario Kart tournaments in college. I used to be REALLY good, but I bet you’re much better than I am at Mario Kart 8. Don’t let too many adults tell you that video games are bad for you, they actually do a lot for your hand eye coordination and will help you in the future when it comes to sports and even computer based careers! Just stay away from those super violent war video games, those don’t do you any good.

Thank you again, Mrs. Mellon’s Third Grade Class! You all did a VERY nice thing for me. Consider me your Pen Pal from Colorado and I look forward to hearing about your adventures in the future. Please remember what I said about “Positive Perspective.“ It will definitely help you more than you’ll ever know!

And be good for Mrs. Mellon. She’s one of the best teachers you’ll ever have!!!

Your New Friend,

Jason