19

A teacher has two jobs; fill young minds with knowledge, yes, but more important, give those minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn't go to waste.  -Mr. Holland's Opus

Today's blog is going to be short and sweet.  I could probably write an entire 5-paragraph essay about her, as she is the one who taught me to write them so well, but I'm afraid she would then send it back to me with corrections that need to be made. 

Kinka, ADBK, LLR, La

What I can say is that the phrase "When one door closes, another one opens" is evident in her involvement in my life.  Surprisingly enough, I was an arrogant fool in my younger years.  We wrote our first paper of the year in Advanced English 10 and turned it in. I got it back with a D.  Are you kidding me--a D?!?!  I had NEVER EVER gotten a D before, and I sure wasn't going to start now.  Surely my teacher had it wrong. I approached her and asked her if there had been a misunderstanding.  She explained to me that my expectations were much higher than before and that I was no longer going to be able to write a paper in 30 minutes the night before and expect a high grade.  I might have thrown a small tantrum as she clearly didn't know who I was and wasn't going to make exceptions for me.  She sent me home with a wounded ego and an offer to rewrite the paper for a higher grade.  When I got my returned paper back again with a B on it, she wrote "Don't give me anything less than this again."  Man, she was one tough cookie!!  More surprisingly, I was hook, line and sinker from then on out. 

This was only the beginning of the challenges she gave me.  My senior year, I took another class with her--one that typically students took just for an easy A, despite the amazing literature that was covered in the class.  Upon signing up for the class, she informed me that I would not be taking the same class as the other 20-some students, but would have an alternative syllabus with different/more challenging assignments.  She followed through on this and my expectations were twice that of any of the others, and I rose to the challenge.  On the less-than-educational side of things, she challenged me, personally, to really examine my life and figure out who I really was. 

ADBK, La, LLR

To this day, I still keep up with her, and plan my visits back to the Midwest so that I'm sure she'll be available to see me.  I can't believe that I haven't been her student for 11 years, and I still keep in touch with her--and her with me.  She was the ONLY person in life who ever challenged me to truly rise to my potential--until the past year or so when I began to challenge myself to do the same.  She went from being a warden, to a teacher, to a mentor, to a friend.  She will forever be one of the most influential people I've met in my life journey and will forever be indebted to her.  The guidance, safety, challenges, and caring that she offered were the window that opened when doors were closing, and I climbed into that window and held on for dear life. 

I look forward to seeing her face, the first familiar one I will see, when I get off that plane on October 12.