Today I was blessed. I don’t know how else to put it.
A student I taught three years ago visited me. He was a transfer from a nearby high school in a different district. His writing skills were barely high enough to merit placement by my district’s standards in my class. Verb tenses were muddled, and sometimes I wasn’t sure of what he was trying to say in his writing. But during discussions, he often shined with his insights and his tenacious approach to understanding what we were discussing.
While he was in my class, I recognized that grit and determination. He talked about how hard he trained for soccer for both my school and outside leagues. During the off-season, he spent most days in training. I watched him play for my high school team and realized he wasn’t the next Pele, but he was determined.
Last year I wrote one of his college recommendation letters. He had big dreams of going to Division I schools to play soccer. But, because he hadn’t worked quite as hard in academic schoolwork, he ended up being recruited by a small school in North Carolina. He’d have to pay half the tuition to attend. I wondered if he’d really do it.
Today he found me in another teacher’s classroom. “Miss, I’ve come to find you three times this year. I finally found you,” he smiled. “Things are going really, really well.”
Since we had talked so much last year about his filling out the paperwork for college by himself and how to try to get into college, I guessed, but still wondered, that his quick assessment meant he was in college and doing well.
He is in college and playing soccer. His first semester went ok academically, but now he’s knuckling down and studying a lot more. “I really like the way my world civilizations professor teaches us. He’s teaching us how to read and how to study,” he said. “I got a 100 on our last test!”
He tells me his parents are extremely proud of him. He’s unashamed of the fact that they couldn’t help him figure out how to approach college. Instead, he’s just happy that he’s making them happy.
And, today, without his knowing it, he made me happier than I’ve been in a very long time. I know he had help from his soccer coaches in the past and other teachers, but I couldn’t help myself from sharing a bit of the pride his parents feel in his accomplishments.
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