You never know who’s going to touch your life. If you think about it, there are hundreds, probably thousands of people that you’ve crossed paths with in your lifetime. Some of them are just familiar faces, like the nice woman at the sushi shop. Others will form closer bonds with you, and stick around for a few months, or a few years. But you can never really anticipate which of these people will leave lasting impressions on you.
She was one of those people.
Never did I think that I’d be crying over the death of a former teacher. Granted, I’d be sad, because death is sad, not really because I cared all that much. This was different. For starters, she was lovely, to everyone, back in the days when we were a bunch of annoying little juniors. Even though she shared our class with another teacher, who was very much less than kind to us, she constantly encouraged us to do our best. She wasn’t just saying that either. We were motivated because we felt we had to live up to her expectations, because she believed in us so hard.
Although as a maths teacher, she was never able to teach me much about the subject, as a coach, she taught me a lot about life. It sounds really cliché to say, but she really did teach me the importance of believing in myself. She taught me that it didn’t matter that I didn’t play at A-level, as long as I fucking believed that I could beat the shit out of anyone on the other side of the court.
There are so many things that I can’t even put into words, but just… Thank you, so much, for believing.
R. I. P.
