Encouragement

[Guest guest]

“Please come up to my Desk, Nancy “ , my geography teacher requested.

“Why is she calling me? I wondered. I didn’t even know that she knew my name. As far as I could remember, she had never spoken to me. I was a very shy and quite student. I succeeded to make average grades, even though I didn’t study. I wasn’t one of her best students, or one of her worst.

I was simply an “average” student.

Unfortunately, average kids don’t usually get noticed. I have found that teachers tend to pamper smart kids and help the slow kids, when they are not trying to discipline the bad kids. Average kids, somehow, get lost in the shuffle.

I rose from my seat and tiptoed, hesitantly, toward her desk. Around me, my friends were whispering and snickering. I began to tremble.

“What did I do?” I asked myself, as I stood at her desk.

She looked up at me and placed her pen on her desk. She began to shuffle through some papers. Did you call me? I whispered. I was hoping I had misunderstood.

“ I certainly did, young lady,” she answered, as she pulled several pieces of paper from the bottom of the rustled stack. Is this your test, Nancy?

“ Yes, “ I replied. It was an essay test, which consisted of three very difficult questions. I had answered each of them to the best of my ability, even though I didn’t have a clue as to what the correct answers were.

“ Did you study, Nancy?” she quizzed.

“No I didn’t,” I confessed, expecting her to tear my test in half.

“ I didn’t think so,” she declared, as she placed an ‘A’ on my paper.

“ An ‘A’ ? I inquired.

“Yes,” she said. “ Why do you look so surprised? You have a way with words like I’ve never seen before. You earned it. But please study next time.”

As I started to walk away, she called my name again. When I turned around, she was smiling.

“You ‘re going to be a great writer someday,” she said. “I believe in you.”

I was elated. I had my very first ‘A’ in that class. But better than that, I knew that my teacher believed in me, even though I didn’t even believe in myself. From that day on, I studied diligently and brought my grades up. “ If my teacher believed in me, I couldn’t let her down,” I decided.

That day was a turning point in my life. I never forgot her words.

I began my writing career thirty years later have now been published in numerous books and periodicals.

Encouragement goes a long way in the life of a child. Teachers can help a child form a foundation on which to build a life of success.

“ You’re going to be a great writer someday,” she said. “ I believe in you.” What a difference those few words made in my life!

NANCY B. GIBBS

WRITER

 

 

EASWAR.S.S