This thread is for sharing meaningful experiences/realizations in life. They don't have to profound. For instance, during my 5th grade science class my teacher was explaining that our digestion system needs certain forms of bacteria to do it's job. That night I went on a learning binge and looked up information about microbial life. I was in 5th grade so I imagine some of what I found was probably internet bs. Regardless I found it amazing that life forms we can't see can sometimes carry more weight than lifeforms we can see. I know that is lame example so instead of attacking it, top it. :]
When I was in high school , I took a class called "News Writing ". I should explain that when I was a freshman in high school, I was not a good student. I was there for social hour, my home life wasn't great, I spent a lot of time working part time and I wasn't really concerned with grades.
Anyway, I was in this class and they did a mock group interview. The students asked questions and we had "X" minutes to write a newspaper article.
Fast forward a week later and when that hour rolled around, the teacher handed out those graded articles. I didn't get mine back, which bugged the hell out of me. I had turned it in before class was out the same day, so I was a little upset. Where the hell was it?!
Next thing I know, the teacher talks about how good the papers were, but there was one she was particularly impressed with. I'm still sitting there, pissed off because I actually DID that assignment and turned it in.
Next thing I know, she starts reading this paper aloud.
She was reading my paper. I was flabbergasted. I had NEVER had a teacher read anything of my aloud before, much less give it praise.
Everyone turned around and stared at me. I think they were as shocked as I was. I could feel my face and ears burning red. She handed it to me, with an A+ scribbled on it, and told me she wanted to see me after class.
After class, she wanted to put me on the school newspaper staff as a reporter. She was the sponsor and would sign off so I didn't have to take the prerequisite classes.
This sticks out to me to this day, because she was the first teacher that believed in me. Everyone else was so quick to write me off...and this woman took a chance on me.
I'll never forget her.
Thanks again, Mrs. VanPatten!