Lake View High School Student….
Just wanted to congratulate you on your 2,001 likes on your page! It’s such an amazing thing on how you’re changing people’s lives. I go to Lake View High School and I filled out a card and put it in the box, I got called into the principal’s office Me. Beck and I thought I was in trouble but I told him what a good deed I had done and he just wanted to appreciate me and he’s glad there’s students like me in the school. I wanted to thank you so much for touching my heart and changing my views on life.
Lindsay High School Student….
The assembly you guys had here in Lindsay yesterday was the most powerful and eye-opening presentation that I have ever been too. It made me think even more about life than I had done before. It was very inspirational! Thank you for coming out and giving us that presentation. I’m sure it helped other kids think through their actions more and how those thoughts will affect them!
Bells High School Student….
Hello my name is joe I’m from bells Texas you came and talked to us we have become a changed school and I gratefully thank you for that I came in the gym 1 person and when I left I was a whole new person and I dearly thank you for that and I am saying may God watch over you while you spread the word MEASURED BY CHARACTER and your son is all right he is with God watching over you smiling and he is waiting to give you that kiss on your cheek when you arrive at the gates of glory may God bless you on your journeys you have a wonderful day.
Recently, my high school hosted a meeting in the gym with guest speaker Wade White. His powerful message left a resonating impact on me—we are all measured by our character. What we do, what we say, and most importantly, how we make others feel.
With this in mind, I began contemplating how that applied to my experience in high school. I thought about my awkward, self-conscious freshman self and the people who have helped build me into the young woman I am now. Everything leaves an impression, I realized, from the kind smiles the lunch ladies send my way every afternoon to the way a teacher conducts his or her class.
Marching band, for example, has been a major catalyst in my life. I have been in band since seventh grade, but it didn’t truly become my home until freshman year. The upperclassmen were welcoming and kind, teaching me that making friends wasn’t as hard as I had always thought. By being myself, not changing who I was to impress them no matter how much that idea lingered in the back of my head, I made plenty of friends.
The One Act play, which I joined my junior year as a hopeful understudy, taught me to have confidence in myself. The directors, Mr. Dassinger and Ms. Dooley, along with my fellow cast and crew members opened their arms to me and gave me a sense of belonging. They taught me through the inside jokes and laughter we shared that I could do anything I set my mind to if I was willing to learn.
The common themes that encompass my four years at Aubrey High School are these: if you do your best, you will always succeed and have faith in who you are. I was inspired by the character of those surrounding me to better myself, a handful of teachers as my main source of motivation.
The fact of the matter is that good teachers are essential to creating strong young men and women of character. Mrs. Gallagher taught me the value of genuinely caring for the people around myself. Mr. Rahman showed me how to respect people and the importance of humbly putting others before myself. Mr. Dassinger, through his jovial, outgoing personality, provided a perfect example for me about being comfortable expressing myself, no matter how silly I’m being. Ms. Dooley taught me how to open my mind to new possibilities for music and writing.
There are many more—teachers who inspire a love of learning in their students or an interest in a certain topic—that I could include but it all boils down to this: we all leave an impact. Mr. White told a gym full of students, “You are the only person with your exact fingerprints in the world. You are the only person who gets to decide how you impact others in the amount of time you’ve got here.”
As I stated earlier, people aren’t going to remember you for what you wear. People won’t remember you for what you say or what you do. They will remember how you made them feel, and my experiences at Aubrey High School have impacted my decision that I want to do my best to make people feel happy.
Caitlyn Denning