That just happened… Dr. Gary D. Schmidt, the greatest young adult lit writer in our time or any other, came to my school. Stayed at my house. Sat at my table. Met my students. And poured out extravagant love and grace and kindness and wisdom for all of us.
I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and glad, like a child with her head on the pillow, still in the war
m comfort of a dream. I’m filled with gratitude this morning. I’m so thankful for my kids who brought Dr. Gary here; for my teaching cohort who teased me mercilessly, calling me out for being a crazy-psycho-stalker-fan while concurrently sharing in my joy; for my boss, Mr. Smith, who wanted to bring Dr. Gary here from the very start and found a way to make it happen; and for my Sean-Martin, who just smiled and nodded the whole time as I had stars in my eyes these past couple of days.
The day before Dr. Gary arrived, Mr. Smith asked me, “Daisy, what if he gets here and you find out you don’t like him?
I said, “What? Like he gets off the plane wearing a “TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT t-shirt?”
I couldn’t even imagine. And that never transpired. He only made me appreciate him more. You should have seen my kiddos at the airport. I thought they would all rush up to greet him, attack him with hugs, all talking at once. But they froze! Dr. Gary came through the glass doors, and they were instantly paralyzed, star-struck. I walked over and greeted the good doctor. The kids stood behind us in their cement shoes completely helpless to move or speak.
“I don’t even know who these people are,” I told Dr. Gary who laughed at their reaction. 
With that, our time with Dr. Gary began, and it is not hyperbole when I say that we wore him plumb out. We whisked him off to do an interview straight out of the gate which is currently being edited and then off to a Mexican potluck hosted by
the beautiful parents of these beautiful children. From dinner we walked to the Nampa Public Library where Dr. Gary told stories and answered questions from the crowd and signed, oh, a coupla hundred books, took a coupla hundred pictures, and brought a coupla thousand smiles to the faces of so many. And guess who got to sit right there at the signing table with him the entire time?
I felt marginally terrible about this, but even knowing this man had been up since before the sun, had traveled no fewer than seven hours to get here, had rocked a 45-minute filmed interview, signed a gazillion books and talked to a gazillion people, I made him go back to my house and sign all seventeen of my books — each with a different message. I did.
This is my, “I’m not proud of it, but I’m super happy” face:
The next day, we woke this man up at the crack of dawn to go meet the kids at school. Truly, he is a miracle worker. I don’t know of too many people who can hold almost 700 7th and 8th graders with rapt attention for a solid hour, but that’s exactly what Dr. Gary did because he’s magic… pure magic.
And because we produce WRITERS at our amazing middle school, Dr. Gary was thrilled and delighted to conduct not one but two writers’ workshops for a select group of 7th and 8th grade students whose lives were changed forever. One lunch later with some of our English department, and Dr. Gary and I were back in the car, and I was driving him to the airport.
I don’t know how many times that man had to hear:
Mrs. Martin loves you sooooo much!
She’s your biggest fan.
Nobody loves you like she does.
A lot.
Love is a big word. It means many different things, obviously, so I just wanted to make sure that he knew exactly and precisely how I love him because I won’t deny it.
I loved that man in one page.
On the way to the airport I made sure he knew:
Gary, here’s what I want you to know… The level of respect and admiration and gratitude that I have for your work and for you as a human is huge. I love you. Of course I do. You know why? Because the people I really, truly, deeply love with all my heart are my kids. I’m so smitten with them. They are divine appointments in my life. I’ve been doing this teaching gig for over two decades now, and I’ve used countless texts in my classroom. There are a lot of standards that I have to teach, and I do, but there is so much more that I want to teach my kids: about how to be good people and how to be Hope Givers, how to be resilient and how to navigate their way through the inevitable heartache that comes with being alive on this planet. No one, Dr. Gary… no one has given me the words like you have to accomplish what I want to accomplish in my kids. I stand on your shoulders every single year to fulfill my purpose and help my kids to find theirs. They asked you to come here — they did that for me — and you came. Now I have kids that understand that ideas become things. They know they can do what they set their minds to do. And I love you for that.
That’s how I love this man.
I’m aware of the fact that those in my inner circle will always tease me about being a crazy-psycho-stalker-fan. So let me leave you with a text conversation with my good friend, teaching and thinking partner, as well as my partner in crime, Kelly, who wrote me:
Daisy Rain Martin is an author, speaker, advocate, and educator as well as a founding member of The Flying M-Inklings Writing Group. Her comedic memoir, Juxtaposed: Finding Sanctuary on the Outside, was Christopher Matthew’s #1 top selling book in 2012. She has a free e-book on her website for anyone who has or is currently being sexually abused called, If It’s Happened to You. Her next book, Hope Givers: Hope is Here, will be out soon. Daisy is also the Editor in Chief of RAIN Magazine, an online magazine that has been a fundraising effort for her three favorite charities and features new, up-and-coming writers. Please follow her weekly blog, SATURDAISIES, which addresses a plethora of current issues including child advocacy, all things hilarious, and matters of the heart. She would love for you to join the Rainy Dais Community by friending her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.