A voice from the past

As you know from my blogs January is National Mentoring month.  Today I had a wonderful surprise that still brings tears to my eyes.  I was at Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service meeting and one of the Commission members that I have known for years is on the Commission. She was Governor Hunt's chief of staff when I worked with him so we have remained very close friends over the years.  Several years ago we discovered that her "new stepsons had been one of my former students (don't focus on the math please). Anyway she had told him that we worked together.   Today he called me to thank me.  He told me "thank you for believing in me when I didn't believe in myself.  You made a difference in my life and I am forever grateful for it".  Talk about a moving moment.  I still vividly remember him as a cute, little 8th grader with a mop of blonde hair hanging in his eyes who hated school and wanted to spend his life surfing.  He was to say the least a real pistol!  He challenged me and every teacher he had and most of them just kind of gave up on him.  I knew though that his parents were going through an ugly divorce and his Mom was struggling with some serious mental health issues.  So he decided as many kids that age do to get attention in a negative way.  I remember one time he called me from jail (his only quarter) to come and get him because he was scared to call his parents.  Obviously I could not do that so I went and got his Mom, calmed her down so she would not "kill him" as he feared and we went and got him.  Seems he was dabbling in a bit of the whacky stuff and got caught.  The good news is after having him in both 8th and 9th grade, he did transfer to another school but I lost track of him. But low and behold I get a graduation invitation from his mom with a very sweet note thanking me for not letting him drop out.  Four years later I got an invitation from him for his college graduation from East Carolina.  I have kept up with him through his stepmom but today was the first time that I had talked to him.  The cute little kid that was full of it..is now a millionaire businessman....now a bald headed forty year old SUCCESSFUL businessman.  How nice to know that I touched his life in a positive way. Made my day!!!!