What’s on the iPod: Rocking by Roger Whitacker
Today’s my first day typing with the fingerless gloves this year. Not that I haven’t needed them all this month – it’s been in the 20s during the day. But today is the first my hands are feeling it. So back to getting used to typing with wool on my knuckles.
The daughter’s graduation was wonderful. The day was frigid (low teens to start), but the excitement of all those new graduates warmed everyone. There were stories of how some of them came to the university and how both traditional and nontraditional students found their footing and excelled. The speeches by the faculty and administration were blessedly short, and more interesting than expected. Plenty of bright kids getting honors (my own missed Cum Laude status by a mere .02 points on her GPA), and a few perfect GPAs. Amazing school, amazing kids. And my amazing kid now has a BA in Communications Media and a minor in English.
As we drove home late last night, I listened to my daughter’s stories of her professors who inspired her. In particular, one writing class was led by a professor who took exceptional interest in how his students progressed. In his initial meeting with her about her ideas for her writing portfolio, he went over what was problematic with her fiction. He got personal. He asked her questions about a particular event in her life. She relayed that it was quite painful. He shared his own painful experience – a divorce – and how writing had helped him come to terms with it. He then said, “Put it on paper. You can’t really tap into your fictional writing until you embrace your self. It may be painful, but it’s real and it’s going to help you grow as a writer.”
She shifted her portfolio focus to nonfiction and began exploring her feelings. Her portfolio scored 425 out of 400. His advice was golden to her. Those are the professors who change lives. And that school – Indiana University of PA – is chock full of teaching talent. Over 15,000 students all getting that kind of attention. Just amazing.
In fact, I asked her who inspired her the most of all her professors. She listed several and had very solid examples of how they inspired her. How often does it happen that so many inspirational people are there to help put words and shape to your goals?
We arrived home around 12:30 yesterday morning, the shiny new graduate and me. And now she has a life to plan and I have the distinct pleasure of watching her take wing. How cool is that?
Who has inspired you in your life?
10 responses to “Bragging Rights”
I still have two professors from college in the early 80s with whom I'm in contact on a regular basis. They helped me navigate through turbulent college years and every time I have a success, I can find the seeds of inspiration planted by them.
One person that comes to mind is my junior high and high school art teacher (same person). He was the type of person that would see the good in anything you drew, provided you made an effort to do your best. A lot of kids had him for art and everyone knew him best for his 'Go, Go, Go!' attitude. He would never let you give up.
There were other teachers that would say nice things just to say them. You could tell they didn't really mean it, but he was different. He would not only say them, but he would go out of his way to make sure YOU saw the good things that he saw.
He didn't just teach you to draw. He taught you to see past the surface to what lies beneath and draw that instead. He always explained that you could draw a person by what you see on the outside. If you knew what made them tick, you could draw a more vibrant picture of them. One that would need no explanation.
I use that in a lot of areas of my life. Whenever I'm discouraged, I can hear, somewhere in the far reaches of my mind, the same voice, of his, crying, “Go, Go, Go!” Basically, saying that I better not give up.
The one person who comes to mind is my high school English and Creative Writing teacher, Christine Swanberg. She left teaching a long time ago to concentrate on poetry. She was the first, and only, teacher who really encouraged me in any subject. She challenged me, too. Without that, I'd probably be a laid-off factory worker today, like so many people in my community.
I run into her every couple of years. Last time, we were both leading writing workshops at the same event and she sneaked in to see the tail end of mine.
Congrats to the new grad!
On the writing side, it was one of my high school English teachers and two of my college profs. On fostering the mental toughness that successful self-employment demands, it was a combination of my dad (a lifelong entrepreneur) and my college rowing coach — who pushed me in ways that still startle me, looking back.
Kelly Seay, a high school English teacher – taught writing, reading, used to complement my efforts which really helped.
Today it's my readers and writing cohorts like you Lori.
Congrats to your daughter! I had a couple of wonderful professors during my undergrad years at Boston University. Then I did a writing certificate and the professor was so wonderful, he helped organize happy hours to reunite our class so we could catch up on what our former classmates were working on.
Congratulations to the new graduate and to her proud mama.
awesome post, thanks for sharing something so personal! I'm working on my masters and it's soooo freaking hard, but I am also inspired by my professors, and I hope to approach next semester more form that standpoint more then from the "omg-this-is-so-hard-why-am-I doing-this" standpoint.
I had two professors in college who I adored. I took every course I could with them. One was very encouraging and kind. The other was demanding. I learned a lot from both of them.
Without the demanding professor, I would never have read Proust. I'm so glad I did.
Funny how so many people have inspired us in such different ways (and some not so different).
Allena, you can do it! My lord, look at what you've accomplished already. A masters? Piece of cake for you! 🙂