I’ve been awaiting this moment for
weeks, let me paint this picture for you:
I am laying in my bed with Chipotle
chips & salsa to my right, my cell phone is MIA, and I have nothing going on.
Although I was awoken to my loud Ed
Sheeran ringtone to a conference call that I had forgotten about at 8:00AM
(yeah, I was embarrassed) but that isn’t going to kill the amazing mood that I
am in.
So many people love being busy and
not taking time for themselves.
I use to be those people.
Back in July when I was at Student
Council Camp for my fifth year in a row; I had woken up on the last day to the
realization it was the last day and I
had to go back home and go back to my normal life.
Life happens so fast! My mom always
tells me that I take on too much and that I need to lay in bed all day when I
can because my body is going to get sick.
Spoiler Alert! – I never listen and
she is always right.
With awards season high on my tail
and a flight that leaves for Las Vegas on Monday bright and early, I am so
thankful for this much needed downtime.
Gearing up for the Teen Choice
Awards, Emmys, and now the Video Music Awards is taking it’s toll on me and I’m
only twenty years old.
But how lucky am I that I get to be a
twenty something reporter on the red carpet? Too lucky.
I woke up reflecting on a moment, a
moment that will stay with me forever and ever (and ever.)
I was a junior in high school and I
had the biggest ambition of becoming what in the Student Council world is
called a “State President.”
Now what is that?
Well let me tell you, it’s this
amazing position where you hold a president position over every council in the
state of Arizona – and that was the biggest dream I had when I was seventeen.
I worked so hard to prepare for my
application and getting everything ready, because I knew that I was going to be
the best state president there could be.
I had been asking my advisor at the
time to write me my recommendation letter for three months, and she kept
putting it off.
I never thought as to why she was
putting it off, I just figured that we were so busy it was the least of her
worries and I understood that.
On the day that my application was to
be postmarked, December 10th, I waited until after school and I
walked into Ms. Mac’s classroom and I asked her if she had written my letter.
I think the only person I will ever
name who was mean to me, will be Ms.Mac, because even though what she said to
me made me cry for months it helped me reach even bigger goals.
She also was a teacher, who was
suppose to build her students up instead
of tearing down their dreams in mid-flight and that’s exactly what she did to
me.
“Ms. Mac, I’m on my way to send off
my application and all I need is your recommendation letter.” I said to her
after some awkward silence.
After the drop of some papers and
some more silence she finally looks up from her computer and says this,
“You know Shelby. I’ve been really
struggling with this letter, because quite frankly you’re just not good at
anything and I can’t put my name on anything that has to do with you.
Everything that you do, you fail at. I hope you understand.”
I was only seventeen when the woman I
admired most told me that I wasn’t good at the only thing that I loved: Student
Council.
I nodded and said thank you and I
walked out the door and threw away my packet and other recommendation letters
right outside her doorway and went to my car and cried.
Years later and looking at where I am
now, I’m so thankful that she knocked me down because that only meant that I
could build myself up.
I hope she can read this one-day and
realize what an awful person and teacher she was to Apache Junction High
School.
She did do one thing right, she made
me stronger and that’s the only thing I will ever thank her for.
Oh! Adding to the list of things that
I fail at, I also became a published writer! It’s kind of cool. Feel free to
check out both articles.
One is even in the Entertainment
Daily (heavy breathing!)
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