一天，老师让学生在纸上写下班上所有同学的姓名，再想想他们的优点并记录下来。全班同学用很长的时间完成了这个作业，交给老师之后便离开了。
到了星期六，老师把每个学生的名字分别写在一张纸上，并在该生的名字下写上其他同学对他（她）的优点评价。
星期一，学生都得到了一张写满自己优点的纸条。不一会儿，全班同学的脸上露出了笑容。“这是真的？”老师听到有学生在耳语，“我从不知道同学们竟如此在乎我！”；“我真的不知道别人其实很喜欢我的！”
从那以后没有人在班上再提起这件事。老师也不知道课后学生们是否和自己的父母谈及此事，但这并不重要，这次“练习”已经达到了预期的目的。学生们快乐地学习、生活，相处得非常融洽。
几年之后，她的一个学生马克在越战中阵亡，这位老师应邀参加了葬礼。
她从来没见过在灵柩中将士们的模样。马克看起来那样英俊，成熟，教堂里站满了他生前的朋友，他们一个挨一个地从灵柩边走过去，看了他最后一眼。
老师最后一个来到灵柩旁祈祷。当她站在那里的时候，一个看上去像护柩的人向她走了过来问道：“您是马克的数学老师吧？” “是的。”老师点点头。他继续说道：“马克谈到很多关于您的事。”
     葬礼之后，马克生前的同学都去用餐了。马克的父母依旧站在那里，显然是在等待和马克的老师讲话。
“我们想拿件东西给您看看，” 马克的父亲一边说一边从口袋中拿出一只钱包。“这是马克阵亡后他们在他身上发现的。我们猜想您一定认得这张纸条。”打开这只钱包，他小心翼翼地展开两张破旧的笔记本纸，这两张纸显然被很好地包裹过，并被多次展开，折叠。老师一下子就认出这正是她曾经让学生列出的优点单。
“谢谢你能这样做，”马克的母亲说道，“您看，马克一直珍藏着它。”
马克所有的同学都围了过来。查理羞涩地笑道，“我依然保管着我的这张纸条。我把它放在我家办公桌最上面的抽屉里。”
查克的妻子说道，“查克要我把他的优点单放在我们的结婚相册里。” “我的也还在，”马丽莲说道：“我把它放在我的日记本里。” 这时又一位同学威琪把手伸到钱包里拿出她那张褶皱的优点单。“我一直带着这张纸，”她说道，“我想我们每个人都一定珍藏着自己的优点单。”
听到这些话，老师不禁流下了眼泪，为马克，也为所有再也见不到他的朋友而哭。
芸芸众生，人来人往，以至于我们都忽视了这样一个事实：生命终有一天会结束，但我们无法知晓那一天何时会到来。
所以， 告诉你所爱的人，你所关心的人，让他们知道，他们都很独特也很重要。
告诉他们吧，趁现在还为时不晚。

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling.

"Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn´t know others liked me so much." were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class with their parents, but it didn´t matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose.
The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on. Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student.
She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin.
The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin. As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark´s math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes."
Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot." After the funeral, most of Mark´s former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark´s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark´s classmates had said about him.
"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark´s mother said. "As you  can see, Mark treasured it."
All of Mark´s former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It´s in the top drawer of my desk at home."
Chuck´s wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."
"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It´s in my diary."

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her purse and showed her frazzled list to the group.
"I carry this with me at all times, " Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."
That´s when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don´t know when that one day will be.
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important.
Tell them, before it is too late...