Believing in Someone

I was scrolling through Facebook when I see a post from a former student. He’s finally experiencing success as a teller. More importantly, he’s also a basketball coach for a local skills development center.

 I met William as a freshman. English was his least-favorite subject, and often times, he would stroll in late or, well, not at all. He rocked math and had success in science, but his love, his passion, his fire was basketball.

I clearly recall one time we had started a small poetry unit. We started writing “I Am” poems. William was having none of that! I’m used to resistance to assignment, but holy cow was he stubborn! “I’m not doing this.” “I can’t do this.” “This is stupid.” Any teachers out there will be familiar with these expressions.

You can do this!

 I knelt down beside his desk and we talked it through. After a few questions, I found my “in”: basketball.

“How are you the court? The ball? The game?”

His eyes lit up as he saw how to use the game of basketball as a metaphor for who he was, the relentless defender and three-point sharpshooter.

 Fast-forward three years. There’s a knock on my door and one of my fellow teachers walks in. She taught English IV, and one of her projects was a senior essay, where students reflected on their high-school career. “I have to share this with you,” she said. It was just a small section of William’s senior essay: “…he believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself.”

 When’s a time when someone believed in you? Drop a quick story in the comments below so we can inspire each other.