Who you are speaks louder to me than anything you can say
At the beginning of my 8:00 a.m. class one Monday at University of
Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), I cheerfully asked my students how their
weekend had been. One young man said that his weekend had not been very
good. He’d had his wisdom teeth extracted. The young man then
proceeded to ask me why I always seemed to be so cheerful. His question
reminded me of something I'd read somewhere before: “Every morning when
you get up, you have a choice about how you want to approach life that
day,” I said to the young man. “I choose to be cheerful". “Let me give
you an example,” I continued.
The other sixty students in the class ceased their chatter and began to
listen to our conversation. “In addition to teaching here at UNLV, I
also teach out at the community college in Henderson, about seventeen
miles down the freeway from where I live. One day a few weeks ago I
drove those seventeen miles to Henderson. I exited the freeway and
turned onto College Drive. I only had to drive another quarter-mile
down the road to the college. But just then my car died. I tried to
start it again, but the engine wouldn’t turn over. So I put my flashers
on, grabbed my books, and marched down the road to the college.
“As soon as I got there I called AAA and asked them to send a tow truck.
The secretary in the Provost's office asked me what had happened.
‘This is my lucky day,’ I replied, smiling. “‘Your car breaks down and
today is your lucky day?’ She was puzzled. ‘What do you mean?’
“‘I live seventeen miles from here.’ I replied. ‘My car could have
broken down anywhere along the freeway. It didn't. Instead, it broke
down in the perfect place: off the freeway, within walking distance of
here. I'm still able to teach my class, and I've been able to arrange
for the tow truck to meet me after class. If my car was meant to break
down today, it couldn't have been arranged in a more convenient
fashion.’ “The secretary's eyes opened wide, and then she smiled. I
smiled back and headed for class.” So ended my story to the students in
my economics class at UNLV.
I scanned the sixty faces in the lecture hall. Despite the early hour,
no one seemed to be asleep. Somehow, my story had touched them. Or
maybe it wasn't the story at all. In fact, it had all started with a
student's observation that I was cheerful. A wise man once said, “Who
you are speaks louder to me than anything you can say.” I suppose it
must be so.
(Author: Lee Ryan Miller - story from his book "Teaching Amidst the Neon Palm Trees")
