Did you know that words have the power to impact someone, perhaps in more ways than what one can even expect? It doesn’t matter what medium those words are said through. It could be on a sticky note, an email or through actually hearing them with your own ears, all of which I experienced through one person who changed the course of where my life was heading.
It was 2017 and I had lost a lot of motivation to take school as seriously as I did before. The days were getting longer while attending classes became like chewing gum that had already lost its flavour. It was increasingly tempting to take the easy way to get through college, which was to either give up or become what my local classmates commonly referred to as living the “free rider” lifestyle. A term that is probably used a lot even outside of my college, Cambridge Dictionary defines this as “a person or company that gets an advantage without paying for it or earning it”. A graded slacker among a group, so to speak. However, things would change after I entered a class taught by an energetic lecturer from Australia who probably had coffee for blood.
He seemed to be the physical embodiment of the word “friendly”, always smiling and ready with a quick joke as well as a light-hearted remark. A powerful motivator and one of the coolest people I have ever met, he recognised effort, good work and made sure to remind anyone if they were doing well. As the semester went on, he would become more of a friend to me rather than someone I just saw two mornings a week, refusing the need for the use of “Sir” whenever I spoke to him.
At a time when I felt like giving up, he sent an email praising a written assignment I had done in his class, coming just in time. I was not expecting any more than a grade and some remarks on what I needed to improve upon, but instead I got something much more. I can never forget one of the remarks he made, which was that I had a future in writing and that I should continue to pursue it. Whether academic related or otherwise, I should just continue to aim for it and that he believed that I would continue to do well long after leaving college. He was the first lecturer to tell me that he believed in me, which even went beyond just emails or giving the occasional praise. It would become more like finding a friend who decided to help pull you up when you were down. His words and constant reminders throughout the semester and beyond were what steered me towards finding the motivation that I needed.
Time passes and I carry his words and praises with me even into other classes. Eventually, they were even enough to motivate me through graduation. The last praise I would ever receive from him before that semester ended was written on a yellow sticky note that read “keep on going, mate :)”. Words can impact people in many ways and the person who ended up making a great difference in my life used them in emails, a sticky note and in conversation.
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