Handlettering and design by Sincerely, Hope Designs
This is not a tale about a kid who was apathetic. It’s a story about a boy who was not worried about what everyone else thought.
As a teacher, it always took me a little while to really get to know my students, to get to know things like their work ethic, how much they cared about their grades, and their homework habits. Further into the first semester, I’d also start to pick up on other things, like how friendly they’d be when we’d pass in the hallway, how much feedback I could expect from their facial expressions during lectures, and how preoccupied they were with what others thought of them. It’s true that the high school years can be brutal. Kids can be mean, and most of them all care way too much about what everybody else thinks. These years are also precious because you’re only in high school once. (Thank goodness!)
On the very first day of school one year, one of my students energetically walked (or more like bounced) in my classroom and boldly greeted me as he came in the door. It was just a greeting; I don’t even remember now what he said. But I am always taken aback when students arrive on the first day with enough guts to say much. It’s the first day of school for crying out loud. The first few days are relatively quiet, and I keep my distance until I lay some ground rules. And by distance, I mean the Atlantic Ocean. I made the quick assumption that this student would be one to talk too much if he was already talking coming in the door.
But the days passed and this student proved my estimations wrong. He didn’t make it a habit to talk during class, but he did consistently greet me coming in the door (a gesture I think very highly of) and he usually took his time getting his belongings together after class while making some kind of small talk as he packed up. He’d tell me about the book he was reading, how he didn’t go to bed early enough the night before, or that he’d caught up on the reading assignment for class. Meanwhile, every other student was trying to pack up before the bell even rings so they could sprint down the hall and see all their buddies. Not this one though; he was always just doing his own thing.
One day, my students were taking an open book test. Before you sigh wistfully saying, “I wish myyyy teachers would have let us use our books in school,” it is worth noting that this particular test was more difficult because they were able to use their textbooks. Anyway, during the test, this student sneezed on his exam and then he absent-mindedly wiped his nose as needed. Next, his textbook hit the ground—twice. You can imagine what kind of noise this made. If the sneeze didn’t get everyone’s attention, the slamming textbook certainly did. And then came the ripping of a page a few minutes later. Yep. He accidentally ripped his exam paper.
Normally, these mishaps would have annoyed me, but this time I was rather intrigued. What was quite remarkable was the way the student handled all this. He didn’t laugh after he sneezed or giggle after he dropped his book nor cackle after he ripped his page. Most students would have taken any one of these events as an opportunity to look around, make eye contact with a peer, laugh loud enough to get a few other people’s attention, and turn a small accident into an outright fiasco. Not this kid though. He wasn’t embarrassed about these incidents, and he didn’t intend on making a big deal out of them. He simply dealt with each scenario, acting like he barely noticed it happened, and continued on without looking at anyone else. He literally did not care if anyone else was looking at him or what they thought. In fact, he was totally oblivious to them.
This kid wasn’t afraid to stand alone. Tim Tebow uses this quote a lot: “Stand alone.” It takes confidence to do that. This type of behavior in the high school classroom is always admirable to me. But it’s also respectable in adults, too. Some of us may have to try harder to not care about what others think, while others of us are oblivious to it in the first place. Regardless, we should all make an effort to stop caring so much about what everyone else thinks. God does not give us a spirit of fear, so we need not be leery of trusting our own sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Your life is your own, as it should be. So let my student’s ways be a lesson to all of us.
In the words of T. S. Eliot, “Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it.”