Once in a while a person comes into your life and without even realizing it they change your life. Mine came from a teacher who, upon first meeting her, I loathed and dreaded going to see her every day in class. She was a terrifying mix of a genius, someone who expected so much from students, and demanded reflection from her students. Mrs. Vann was a teacher straight out of a children’s cartoon book with the scary eyes and the yelling voice and she probably smells bad. But Mrs. Vann did change my life for the better and honestly saved my college hopes.
Coming into my sophomore year I was an average student at best. An apathetic attitude coupled with a young boy who thought he was intelligent enough to not care about the putting in real effort to academics; it was a dangerous combination. I ran through the beginning of the year in Mr. Vann’s AP World History class with my usual routine. I would always have good commentary and answers in classes but once it came to the essays and test I was not adequately prepared and my grade reflected my effort. Moving through the semester I had a meeting near the end of it to meet about a paper rewrite. I scored well on the paper and knew the rewrite would be an easy task for me. Yet I was still dreading the get together with my teacher. The meeting was brief and blunt and culminated with the phrase that 4 years later still defines a large part of motivation and passion. “Austin, you are a great talent and it obvious that you are intelligent, but you are the biggest waste of talent I have encountered in my teaching career.”
Humbling is too kind of a word to describe my feelings after this meeting. This statement came from a person in my life that I respected a large amount and would never question a lot of her statements because I trusted her opinions. She was intelligent and driven and garnered my respect regardless of her social graces. Due to this respect the words stung. I went into Christmas break absolutely livid because of my perceived insult. I decided to stick to Vann. I wrote the rest of that year with a purpose and studied as hard as I could to prove that I would be the mark for that class. I would be the measuring stick for my class. It began to spill over to my classes. It spilled over to the rest of my life. It had infected my mind and I knew I had to work for every point that I got that year.
At the end of the year we met again to discuss the AP test I was about to take. The conversation began with a bit of joking and laughter and I fully admitted to her that I worked hard to prove her that she had made a mistake with her comment. She did not say that she did it to inspire me, she did not say I proved her wrong. She simply said “you have a long way to go, don’t ever lost sight of that. No matter how far you go, you’ve still got a long way to go.” I realized that she was right. I am never the perfect version of myself and she led me to constantly evaluate myself and work without pause. I still have a long way to go with my work ethic and my intellectual capacity. But I can honestly say without her I would not be in college and would not be as motivated. She changed my life and I owe her the recognition that I can give her and to pass on her story to others, so others may know.
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