A letter I received from a former student:

[iemitsu]

14. what a beautiful letter.

i hope you take it out and read it whenever you are feeling overwhelmed and picked upon.
i know what you mean when you say the letter validates you and the work you do.
i have received several letters like the one you shared and have heard from former students and their families, reporting on their growth and any influence i might have had on the direction of that growth.
i teach history. it is not always the favorite subject of high school students yet several former students of mine, who left high school to become mathematicians or engineers, ended up with history degrees. their parents were no doubt disappointed that they did not study something that could make them some money.
one story i think of when i need validation came from a conservative young man i had in class years ago. he questioned (politely) nearly everything i said in class. he was sure i was a crack-pot. he did well in high school and went on to study at MIT. after he graduated, got a masters and was working for google, his mother came to school and found me to tell me what her son had said. she told me he said that i had "asked him more critical thinking questions than any teacher he had had in college or graduate studies". and that he, "had learned to think for himself in my classroom and that i was smarter than he had thought". that was a great validation.
i was also ordained as an internet minister in order to officiate at the wedding of two former students, who had fallen in love in my class ten years earlier.
those sorts of incidents and bumping into former students or their families at the grocers and hearing updates about their lives fuels my ability to go to school each morning.
thank you so much for sharing.
i'm off to school in a good mood today.