The power of one word.

I can't remember her first name and I'm pretty sure her last name was Mrs. Johnson. She was my 7th grade English teacher. I can vaguely remember her appearance. She had black curly hair, wore glasses and wore the newly available "invisaline braces".

I don't remember much else about her except....

She literally changed my life with one written word.

I was a typical kid; somewhat of a tom boy who used to like to climb church flag poles in my Easter dress, knee highs and Mary Janes. There were two things my pastor grandad had to take down in front of the church...the flag pole to spare my mother and the "switch" bush to spare me. ;) :)

In school I was mostly a straight A student, competitive in grades and an avid reader. I would do reports, at my teacher's request, of my travels when we took 2 weeks off from school to go on vacation and then to the Assembly. (you can't do that anymore in public school!) When school was over, I would rather play out in the woods, build forts, play chase or basketball with no rules with my neighborhood friends.

By the time 7th grade rolled around, of course I was growing up and the playday tomboy years had come to a close. I wasn't really happy about it at the time...because all my friends were either turning into boy crazy girly-girls or lovestruck dorks. :) :) :) (I didn't get lovestruck until I was 18! Ha!)

So, one day in English class, Mrs. Johnson gave us the assignment of writing 2 or 3 poems. I remember the groans from class, especially the boys! What 7th grader wants to write poems!!??!! I think I just took it as another class assignment to be conquered to get that A, so I did what I always did, tried to think it out and do the best I could.

So I spent the whole weekend working on the poems. I knew they had to rhyme and being a typical emotional teenager, I tried to write something heartfelt. I think one was a little patriotic and the other about nature. I don't really remember. I accomplished my task, checked it off my list, turned it in the following Monday and promptly forgot about it.

A week later, Mrs. Johnson handed us back our papers and at the top...written in red ink in her elegant handwriting...was that one word that changed my life.

Excellent.

It's amazing how one word can suddenly open up a whole new world of possibility in one's mind. I hadn't even realized that I would love creative writing. I had no idea that it was something I would enjoy or even possibly be good at. I was astounded, I had never written in that way before. And...Mrs. Johnson was one tough English teacher...it was hard to get an A in her class. I trusted her word. ;) :)

I was too shy to speak to Mrs. Johnson about her comment on my page. I never told her how I felt and she never said anything to me either. She has absolutely no idea the profound effect she had on me with just one word. To her, I may have been just another student, another poem, another grade. She may have tried to offer me a little encouragement with her comment, but she never knew it's impact or future results.

I still have those poems somewhere in my files. I occasionally, about every 5 years or so, run across them and smile.

One word was all it took. One word is all it takes.

You were an excellent teacher Mrs. Johnson. Thank you.