Some Lessons Travel Across Time and Continents

12 years ago, they were my students

We sat together in a classroom filled with wooden toys, small hands, big laughter, and everyday moments that felt ordinary at the time. Like most teachers, I said goodbye at the end of the school year, wishing them well as they continued on their journeys.

Clothes

Life moved on.

And then, this November, in Tokyo, we met again.

They are grown now—taller, calmer, carrying their own stories. Yet the moment we saw each other, something familiar returned. Smiles came easily. Conversations flowed. They remembered me. And I remembered them.

It touched me more deeply than I can put into words.

This reunion reminded me why I chose this path. Education is not only about academics, skills, or outcomes. It’s about how children feel when they are seen, respected, and cared for. Long after the classroom fades, those feelings remain.

At MiniMama™, I believe in slow education—the kind that values relationships, trust, and presence. The kind that doesn’t rush childhood, and doesn’t measure success only by results, but by connection.

Seeing my former students again after more than a decade, across countries and cultures, was a quiet confirmation:

what we build with children matters—sometimes in ways we don’t realize until many years later.

This is education that stays.

With gratitude,

Mini