Blog #651: A Teacher’s Note. 40 Years Later.

This week…

I’m time-traveling.
I’m heading back 44 years.

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In the third month of my sophomore year in high school…

My family relocated to California from Nevada. Discouragingly, I left behind every friend I had ever known growing up and attending school.

It was a challenging time.

It was difficult to start a new school, particularly when the school year had already begun. I was working alone with my new teachers, furiously trying to get up to speed with the rest of the class. While the class was hearing the day’s lecture, I was working solo, walking myself through the chapters of a geometry book.

During lunch…

My soloist act would continue. I’d stealthily enter the cafeteria and buy a box lunch. I wouldn’t eat at the tables with other kids; instead, I’d sneak to the upper campus, where I could eat my giant cookie in secret.

It just felt like the least dramatic place to exist.

BUT…

Over the next few months, I started to find my footing at my new school. I applied to be on the exclusive yearbook staff for my junior year. I suspect the universe thought it was time for my luck and momentum to change.

The school’s new kid made the yearbook staff.

After that…

Everything began to change for me, to the point that two years later, I’d be elected Student Body President.

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Let’s bring this blog back to today.

Last week…

A reader named Bob sent an email response to my blog.

The reader wrote:

“This was powerful! Sometimes you never know when you’re connecting with someone. Keep up your great work!”

Forty-plus years ago…

That same reader was my yearbook advisor.

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Mr. Burge was an inspiring teacher.

I felt his belief in me.

I felt his encouragement.

I felt his positive push.

Because of it…

I began to grow in my story-telling confidence. I began to feel as if I could create a sentence, a paragraph, and a story that could grab a reader’s attention.

Mr. Burge was a powerfully uplifting wave that forcefully pushed forward my best momentum.

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A wave.

That’s what Bob is.

That’s what you are.

That’s what I am.

We’re all waves.

Our positive force pushes people forward.

Our negative force pushes people backward.

We can either be the drama and trauma wave that discourages others or hold them back. Or…we can be an inspiring wave that pushes people onward to find their best day, their most positive next move…and even their greatest potential.

The words that come out of our mouths.

The content we post on social media.

The things people see us do.

The way we treat others.

It all matters.

It defines the shape, force, and influence of our impact.

It characterizes our wave.

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More than 40 years ago…

A selfless teacher and yearbook advisor instinctively knew this.

And because he did…

It positively changed the destiny of a new kid in school.

And the seven books that the new kid would eventually write.

The waves we make as we walk through life impact people.

His did.

Yours does.

Mine does.

The question is, though…

What kind of impact will your wave make?

S.