A lasting impression - Dedicated to my teacher

"Teachers leave lasting impressions on the hearts and souls of their students."

                     Ritika Bawa Chopra

The influence a teacher can have on her students is way beyond imagination. A small word of encouragement or a slight pat on the back can leave an everlasting impact. 

There's one such incident that I can never forget. I was in Class VII and was an average student in the English language. As a class activity, we were asked to write a composition on a given topic. I had a slight fever but I wrote whatever I could and submitted the notebook. After correction, when I received my notebook, I had scored grade 'D' in that composition, which was the lowest grade in our times. I was utterly disappointed and in tears as I had never received such bad grades in my whole school life. I went to my English teacher Mrs. Jyothi Thyagarajan and pleaded with her to change the grade to 'C' which was also a poor grade but not as low as 'D'. This is because I was concerned as to how my parents would react upon seeing that grade. But my teacher politely refused to change the grade as she said I got the grade that deserved and if she would change the grade then it would be unethical and unfair on the students who had better writing skills than me. 

She also explained to me that in life grades are not so important but the lessons that we learn from those grades. After few years, no one would remember what I had scored in this composition but if I will learn the lesson of improving my writing skills and work towards enriching my vocabulary, then one day I will obtain the highest grade and that will be my real achievement. 

I understood what she had explained and accepted the grade 'D' as the stepping stone towards achieving my goal of scoring the highest grade in English. From then on, I never stopped. I started reading and writing more and more to improve my writing skills. The very next year, my English teacher became my class teacher and with her encouragement and daily motivation, I scored an 'A+' grade not only in English but as the overall grade in Class VIII. This was the first time in my school life that I had scored the grade 'A+' and was also the academic prize winner of that year. And the most amazing part is that I ended up becoming an English teacher and poetess by profession. This was the kind of impact my class VII English teacher left on me. 

I hope this real-life incident will inspire you to never fear failures but learn to turn them into successes. Always respect and love your teachers. They are God's guiding light and our knowledge angels on Earth.