I wrote a blog post last month on "believing in yourself". However, this post is more about what happens when someone else believes in you. Although I grew up lacking self confidence, there was always that one person who believed in me, and that made all the difference.
The first person that believed in me, much more than I believed in myself was and still is my mother. No matter what I thought of myself, she always had the belief that I can do anything, that I could be whoever I wanted to be. She still has that belief.
Growing up, other than my mother, there were a few people in my life who helped me become the person I am today. Some were teachers, some were coaches and some, even friends or coworkers. The point here is that there was always someone, that one person who had the faith, confidence and the belief that I could be successful. I am even where I am today because a principal saw something in me that nobody ever saw and took a chance on me and made me an AP in his school. The belief in something I could be opened a door that was had always been closed.
As a teacher, I knew that I was where I ended up in part to those individuals that believed in me. I made it my mission to always believe in my students. I wanted them to know that I believed in them and that I knew they could be whatever they wanted to be. As I think back to my days as a teacher, I know it was more than that. I didn't just have this faith that my students would be successful, I knew that I had the power to influence their outcome. Sometimes, influence came in the form of teaching and learning, sometimes, it came in the form of words of encouragement. In the end, I hope I was that one...the one that believed in them, the one that helped them believe in themselves, the one that opened a door that had always been closed.
I hope to continue to pursue being a door opener and I hope for someone, maybe many, I was "the one", the one who believed in them when nobody else did.
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