This weekend, my congressional team and I held our monthly town hall in Co-Op City, which is the largest affordable housing community in the U.S. and the largest cooperative housing community in the world. It was our first-ever town hall in Co-Op City since redistricting brought it into our district of NY-14 for the first time.
My second grade teacher, Ms. Jacobs, showed up to surprise me at the town hall and kept a note I wrote her over 20 years ago:
On my last day of second grade, I got on the school bus home and told one of the adults on the bus how excited I was to go back to Ms. Jacobs’ class in the fall, after summer break.
They told me, “Oh, you’re going to third grade! Ms. Jacobs isn’t going to be your teacher anymore — third graders go to a different school."
I started bursting into tears at this realization. I sobbed and sobbed, big, big tears. I genuinely thought I’d never see Ms. Jacobs again, and I never got to say goodbye knowing that. I cried the entire bus ride home with my face leaning against the rattling bus window.
Over 20 years later, Ms. Jacobs came to my town hall that I was hosting as a duly elected member of Congress. I finally did get to see her again after all 
and I got to tell her about my bus ride home that day. She changed my life!
Teachers: thank you. For everything. 
Pa’lante,
Alexandria
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