My Favorite Memory From High School
When I was in my sophomore year of high school at Rochester Community High School, I took an English class. There was this teacher I met who truly stood out to me. He was one of a kind and used to give me books that he had read. Even though he never asked for anything in return, I wrote what I thought was a very special poem in one of my composition books about beauty, and I finally read it to him one morning at his desk. I felt the need to give something back. After I read that poem to him, even though my voice was literally shaking, I asked him if I could please give him a hug. Without hesitation, tears started to spill out of the corners of his eyes. I know that hug we shared in early March of 2009 was just a small token of appreciation, but that teacher saw something in me that helped me feel understood and supported, and that is something I will never forget.
I was reading this book called The Perks of Being A Wallflower and at that point I had already read it three or four times. It is about a teenage freshman in high school, and close to the middle of the book he gives his English teacher an essay and in exchange his teacher gives him another book to read, just like my English teacher did. Two sentences really stood out to me. He asked his teacher why good people choose the wrong people to date. The response was, “We accept the love we think we deserve.” We accept the love we think we deserve. I absolutely live by that quote.
People in general notice things. They see the many possibilities and all the possible outcomes in their lives. I myself am the combined effort of everyone that I have ever known. They molded me and shaped me into the person that I am today. About a week or two before my sophomore year ended in 2010, I was so very excited to create a PowerPoint about one of my favorite artists, the one man band Samuel Beam from Iron and Wine. Even though my voice was extremely nervous and my hands started to shake along with my whole entire existence, I can absolutely remember what I was wearing that day. A black dress shirt with white polka dots and a black skirt that went a little bit past my knees with an off white pink overcoat and tiny black polka dots at the very end of my skirt. My left hand covered my right hand, smiling the whole entire time, and there was exactly one more thing that I desperately needed my English teacher to hear. I had decided weeks before which song to play, and it was one of my absolute favorite songs that meant so very much to me.
He told everyone in that English class to choose one song that has antonyms, homonyms, repetitive words, words that have the same letter in it twice, and so on. If you read the lyrics to Passing Afternoon by Iron and Wine in its entirety, from my standpoint, it is about a very special woman who meant the literal world to him physically, emotionally, and mentally. That is exactly why it is called Passing Afternoon.
Right after I played that song, he said, “Wow Ashlee, that really touched me.” He told me I had something special and encouraged me to keep using my voice. That moment is something I will remember for the rest of my life. At the time, I thought it was just another school year ending and another summer beginning.
I was extremely excited to start my junior year of high school on Thursday, August 6th. I had a best friend ever since middle school. She even asked me to go to my very first prom when I was a freshman. We all have our own personal struggles every single day. Every human being searches for clarity and reassurance that things will turn out okay. In my situation, I was planning to go to college in Chicago to be a creative writer on scholarships as soon as I graduated with an academic honors diploma.
It was Monday, August 10th of 2009. That morning I threw on a random t-shirt and a pair of jeans and walked to school in a good mood, yet in the back of my mind I knew something felt off. The first person I saw was my English teacher saying, “Hey Ashlee, I miss seeing you around. Come see me whenever you get the chance.” He was still teaching English. Later, he wrote me two notes. One was from my sophomore year class. The second was written about a week after my small tragedy happened. When I read that second letter, I was laying in a hospital bed on the fourth floor of Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne.
He wrote that he wanted to visit me but did not know if I would want that. He shared that he once had a friend in a similar situation, and they remained close. At the end of the letter, he encouraged me to keep writing and said that if I ever needed anything, I could let him know. He even wrote that there is a small circle of people who have changed his life, and that I was one of them.
When I finally graduated Rochester High School in 2012, even though I had to retake my junior year, I walked down that aisle with my head held high and everyone clapped. When the principal handed me my diploma, most of the teachers stood up and gave me a standing ovation because they were amazed that I accomplished something many people thought I could not do. My English teacher was the first to stand and clap and he even yelled, “Go Ashlee!”
There is one teacher who not only changed my life for the better, but also impacted my life tremendously through encouragement, belief, and support. I will always remember the influence he had on me. And with that being said, that is my most favorite memory from high school.
