My junior year in High School I had the most unforgettable teacher ever. Well, I say unforgettable except that I can’t, for the life of me remember his name. So, maybe a little forgettable.
Either way, I can’t forget him. He was very unusual. He greeted the class the first day with discourse on why he would much rather be somewhere else besides a high school classroom. He told us in depth of why he should have been a judge and let us know he was trained in discipline by the military. He also gave us a list of codes for common requests. For instance, we couldn’t “ask” to go to the bathroom. We had to raise our hand and say, “code yellow”. Going to the nurse was something like “code blue” and so on. He was serious too, he wouldn’t listen to regular requests, they had to be codes.
And he was grouchy. I don’t think he ever smiled.
We were afraid. Very afraid. There was NO CHANCE I wanted to see him upset, so I did all I could to keep up in the class. To this day, I wonder how much of his personality was for display and how much was real. I may never know.
But I do know one thing, this teacher gave me one of the biggest confidence boost I know.
We had to give a presentation on something – I have no idea what. I prepared, just like he asked us to. Once I finished with my presentation, he told me (in front of the whole class, mind you) that I was a natural public speaker.
I floated through the day. Here was this grouchy, eccentric old man – who never said ANYTHING positive and he just told me how great I was.
That’s it. That’s all I needed was a little encouragement. A little faith that I could do a good job.
Fast forward a few years.
I am now a mother of 5 beautiful children, attempting to balance life, responsibilities, hobbies – and of course – blogging. I began to write on request of my sister. A few months into the blogging experience I met a wonderful woman. She is so inspirational and I want to be better from reading about her LIFE. She, unlike my grouchy teacher, is very upbeat and positive. And still the compliment came just as profoundly. She referred me to her sister’s site, POWER OF MOMS, and suggested that I become a writer for them. Her sister, in turn, invited me to participate in the writing experience.
I felt wonderful. A little pat on the back goes a long way. And while there are a myriad of other, more apt authors, I am so glad I get to have the experience of writing for this empowering website. Check it out, and find me listed under the list of authors…
Now, I wonder who I can boost today?
