As I think back to my high school days, I was one of those rebellious young men who challenged authority at every turn. Most of the time I had the ability to get passing grades in my classes, but I all too often wasted my opportunities trying to get into trouble. I’m not sure how my life would have turned out, had it not been for a different teacher named Miss Simon. When I was only 16 years old, she was my 10th grade “General Composition” teacher. Throughout the duration of her class, I submitted my English compositions and short stories just as my other classmates. Somehow, someway, Miss Simon saw something in my writing that she tilled, fertilized, and watered until I found a love of expressing myself through written words.
I’ll never forget my teacher’s fateful words that she wrote on my final short story. When she handed my graded paper back to me it said, “Scott, I’m proud of how well you’ve developed in your writing style during the past several weeks of my class. You’ve taken many of my suggestions and you’ve implemented them into a far greater level of descriptive and colorful writing style than many of your other classmates. Wouldn’t it be something if you harness your talents and one day write a book?”
How profound was that? From those humble beginnings in a classroom, I went on to write and publish my first book by the time I was only 23 years old, and have since written and published a total of three books. Trust me when I say, each of us is capable of achieving almost anything if only one will reach high for their goals.
Live for the thrill!