What I Am Most Proud Of
In every person’s life, there are opportunities to truly make a difference in someone else’s. Sadly enough though, most people don’t pay those opportunities any notice. They are looked over because society has taught us to look out for ourselves, our family, and our loved ones, but beyond that, we rarely hesitate to turn a blind eye to the problems of other people. As a society, we need to be more generous; and true generosity comes from helping people with the things that they can’t do for themselves.
During my first year of teaching, I had a 12th grade British Literature class that I absolutely loved teaching. I taught them passionately, respected them as people, and my excitement for the material was infectious; I became attached to students in that class and familiarized myself with their abilities as both students and writers.
Early on in the school year, Sora, one of my senior students, unexpectedly disappeared for about a week. When she returned, I learned why. Effectively, Sora was disowned by her parents. Unbeknown to her parents up until that point, she had been dating a boy that wasn’t Jewish. To her dismay, her parents not only discovered this fact, but also found out that she had been sleeping with him. Upon learning this, her parents delivered an ultimatum: stop seeing him or get out. I’m sure many words were exchanged between Sora’s parents and herself, but ultimately, Sora ended up in the home of a friend of hers.
I can barely begin to comprehend what it must feel like to be cast out by one’s parents, let alone at such a young age. Without thinking twice about it, I began staying after school with her to help her catch up in my course; more importantly though, I gave her the chance to vent. I allowed her to let it all out, and I got her into the habit of keeping a journal. I helped show her how cathartic writing could be when she couldn’t find the words to say, or someone to say them to. To this day, she still keeps one.
During the following couple of weeks, we occasionally talked about her decision to not heed her parent’s demands. Ultimately, this actually had a lot more to do with her principles than her devotion to her boyfriend. Although I expressed my opinion that she was being somewhat foolish for not heeding her parent’s commands, I let her know that I had to respect her a little for sticking to her guns, even if I disagreed on the direction they were pointing.
Unfortunately enough, her troubles didn’t end here. A couple of weeks later, she disappeared again for a few days. When she returned again, I discovered that her car had completely died on her and she no longer had a way to get to and from school. The plan then became for her to drop out of school, get a job, and once she had saved up enough money to buy a new car, return to school to graduate. This new plan was the only thing within her power to do…but not mine.
Every now and then, you meet somebody and know that they have something to offer this world; Sora was one of these people. Without contestation, she was the most talented writer in my class; she was brilliant. Sora was a very opinionated person that could and would speak her mind with conviction, and although she was also quite stubborn and had a rather large chip on her shoulder, I knew that I couldn’t allow this travesty to occur.
I learned of her new predicament at the beginning of class on her first day back, the day that was also supposed to be her last. As the class period went by, I kept on thinking up ways for her to stay in school. I couldn’t allow her to drop out now. This was her senior year, the year that is supposed to be the most memorable of her high school career. She was supposed to be spending this time excited about graduating, and friends, and prom, and going to college the next year…not getting a job so that she could come back to finish high school later. By the time class came to an end, I knew what I going to do.
At the end of class, I asked her to stick around for a bit. I sat down with her and told her everything I thought about her, and the situation she was in. I told her what I thought of her as a person and as a student. I then went on to explain that there was no way I was going to let her drop out of school. So the next thing I had her do was give me her address, and told her that I was going to take her to school the next day.
At the time, I was driving a ’96 Contour, and although I had already been doing some research and test driving of various vehicles, I hadn’t planned on buying a new car for another 6 months or so. But sometimes, plans change; immediately after school, I went to a car dealership and bought myself a new ’03 Accord. That night, I had my insurance switched over from my Contour to the Accord.
The next day, I picked Sora up from school as planned. Then when school was out, instead of taking her directly home, we took a detour to car dealership. I parked the car and both of us went inside. I signed the last of the papers and Accord was mine. I then looked at Sora, who hadn’t come to grips with what was going on, held up the deed and keys to the Contour, and said, “as soon as we get you some insurance set up, these are yours.”
At first, she was stupefied; the first words out of her mouth were, “what are you talking about?” I then told her what I said the day before, that there was no way that I was going to let her drop out of school. She took a step back and took in a deep breath, floored by the realization of what was going on. The next thing that Sora said was, “I have no idea what to say. I don’t have anything to pay you with.”
“Who said anything about money?” I said. “Sora, of all the students in our entire school, you are the one that I am the most sure about. You’re the best writer in my class. When you want something or believe in something, you’re going to follow through with it. There is simply no doubt in my mind that you have something to offer this world. You need to finish high school, and I can help make that happen.”
As I was saying this, she broke down in tears. When I stopped talking, as if she still didn’t quite believe what was going on, she asked, “You would actually do that for me?” “Without a doubt,” I said. She looked up at me and said, “I don’t know what to say or do.” To this, I took her by the hands, looked at her and told her, “Just prove me right.”
Two days later, the title was in her name. Sora earned a 3.8 that school year, became Senior Class President, and was given a full ride to an extremely prestigious school in Israel that only accepts 17 girls a year. We still keep in email contact, she still keeps a journal, and she is doing extremely well. She’s doing exactly what I asked her to do: She’s proving me right.