How many “story” or “chain emails” do you receive each day? You know the email filled with great life lessons. Have you received so many over the years that you’ve stopped reading them? Is your day too busy to read “those” emails anymore?
If your day is “too busy,” maybe you need to take a moment to read those emails. Find a smile or a moment of reflection at LEAST once a day. Below is a classic email shared around the internet. What memories and thoughts does this email bring to you? How can use this email with students? After reading the email, I will share my thoughts. Next, share YOUR thoughts in our “Comments” section and I will personally respond to each comment.
THE E-MAIL
The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.
I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being..
She said, ‘Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?’
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, ‘Of course you may!’ and she gave me a giant squeeze..
‘Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?’ I asked.
She jokingly replied, ‘I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids…’
‘No seriously,’ I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
‘I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!’ she told me.
After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.
We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this ‘time machine’ as she shared her wisdom and experience with me..
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.
Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, ‘I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.’
As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, ‘ We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.
There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!
There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.
If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.
Anybody! Can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.
The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.’
She concluded her speech by courageously singing ‘The Rose.’
She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those months ago.
One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly be.
When you finish reading this, please send this peaceful word of advice to your friends and family, they’ll really enjoy it!
These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE.
REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL. We make a Living by what we get. We make a Life by what we give.
God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.
Pass this message on to 7 people . You will receive a miracle tomorrow (if you don’t think so….look out your window when you wake in the morning and think about it )
If you choose not, then you refuse to bless someone else.
‘Good friends are like stars….. …..You don’t always see them, but you know they are always there.’
My first thoughts reading this email were 2 special teachers. While I was blessed to have and continue to have many great “teachers” in my life, my 5th grade teacher and my high school Physics teacher first popped into my head today. Now, many more are rushing in right now and so I’ll focus on the first two. While you can and hopefully do find “teachers” in every aspect and stage of your life, today’s discussion will focus on 2 of my school teachers. Ms. Ruth Hach and Mr. Charlie Barr took the time to do so much more than educate me on a school subject.
Ms. Hach found a way to get a little 5th grader who hated reading – to suddenly want to read (simply by helping me understand finding the right BOOK is what gets you to read). While you always respected Ms. Hach (because she strictly taught “right and wrong in life,” you especially loved her passion for challenging you to excel!
Mr. Barr taught me to GO FOR IT at a time when too many high school students are worried about their image. Instead of being intimidated, I tried everything I could in high school (including creating morning announcements that either entertained or annoyed the entire school – once even shaking the school windows during an imitation of the movie “Good Morning Vietnam” (of course ‘Vietnam’ was replaced with my high school name).
What can we do to insure the greatest “teachers” in our lives impact more individuals? SHARE the stories of these teachers with our children, our colleagues, and our loved ones. Take a moment today to share with at least 5 people a story of a “teacher’s impact” on your life. The KEY is to then ask, “How about you?” What teacher had a lifelong impact on your life and why? Let each of us inspire one another by sharing and listening. For the next week, take a moment in your day to share with someone you love the story of one “teacher” in your life. You will have a BLAST recalling the memories and you will bring the person you share the story with deeper into your own memories and heart.
START HERE by sharing in the COMMENTS section of this website. I look forward to be inspired by you and responding to each story shared!