Who Had the Biggest Impact on Your Life and Why?
This question came to me this morning as I was preparing to start working on my book today and was so important to me, I am delaying my daily book writing for this post.
This is not the first time this thought has crossed my mind or that I have acted on it. There are two very amazing teachers who helped make me to become who I am today…an avid reader and writer. One is Sr. Therese Horan, an Ursuline nun, who was my Second Grade Teacher at Immaculate Conception in Cleveland, Ohio, and Ms. Mary Kreager, who was my high school English teacher at Regina High School in South Euclid, Ohio (that closed in 2010).
Sr. Therese truly was meant to be an educator. She not only was an amazing teacher, but she was creative in the way she taught (and this was in 1976–1977). Her chalkboards had creatively drawn beanstalks with leaves that had math problems in them for our drills. She had a record player we used several times throughout the day, and she had a candy jar full of treats when we got answers right or were having an especially rough day.
At the beginning of second grade, I could read the words on the page but had no true comprehension of what I was reading. Sr. Therese caught this early and got me a reading tutor who I worked with three times a week. She also detected my speech impediment with pronunciation of ‘S,’ ‘Ch,’ and ‘Sh’ from my years of thumb sucking and got me speech therapy too. But after school, most days she would sit with me and help me even more with my reading.
She made reading important to me because she invested so much time into me and my learning. I was not the only student she did this for, but she made each of us feel like we were special, worthy, and deserving. After that intensive year of tutoring she created a foundation for reading that I am so incredibly grateful for today.
In high school, everyone would say Ms. Kreager is the best English teacher, I hope you have her. They did not lie. She was another creative teacher and I gravitate to teachers who are creative and foster that in their students. Ms. Kreager is about five feet tall, or maybe a hair taller and thin but she is a powerhouse in a small body. Her enthusiasm for teaching is contagious. I remember she never used red ink but green ink to correct our papers. She would not only point out the error but suggestions for correcting and improving the sentence. She has the best penmanship and while you knew there would be green marks EVERYWHERE on your paper, you knew it was also a good thing too.
It was Ms. Kreager’s classes which I was lucky enough to have her as my English teacher for a couple of years that sparked my love of writing beyond my journaling. Although it would be years before I acted on it, I did become a professional journalist and loved every day of my career, and I am so happy to let them know I am writing a book now. I go to the library several times a week and on average I read between 5–10 books a week (books and audiobooks). I am at the library so much the other patrons think I work there!
When Sr. Therese was 72 years old and teaching senior citizens and Ms. Kreager was teaching on the college level at Notre Dame College (which now owns the old Regina High School building), I reached out to both women to let them know how much they both impacted my life and the direction I took. They were pleased to hear from me, and both were so humble to say it was me and my hard work, but I know better.
Have you thought to reach out to anyone who had influence in your life and let them know it? If COVID has taught us anything, tomorrow is not promised, and we should not let a day go by without telling people what they mean to us. Even if that person is no longer alive, maybe you can find a family member or maybe just a post on Facebook or LinkedIn. I am sure you will find you were not the only person who had a similar experience.
Thank you, Sr. Therese Horan, and Mary Kreager for having a huge part in the development and growth of who I am today!
LYJ
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