TechIntersect

I just learned that one of my students died. Sarah Corbett. It’s been a few years since I had her in class, but she was unforgettable. Always smiling. Full of life & spreading joy everywhere she went. That’s just how she was.

I didn’t sleep well last night thinking about it. How can someone so young be called home so soon?

I am reminded of a quote by Og Mandino, the author of “The Greatest Salesman in the World” and an entire series of books related to successful living.

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

I read those words many years ago. I think they are from “A Better Way To Live”. Sometimes I try to do it that way, but much of the time I forget & focus too much on myself. When you lose a student you look back and wonder if there was anything you could have done differently. With Sarah, I could have gotten to know her better, she was so obviously such an amazing person. She touched the lives of many people around our campus.

I think that God permits evil & tragedy in the world because it can bring out the best in people affected by it. Note I said it can bring out the best, not that it always does. Sometimes we are so wounded & hurt that we miss out on opportunities. Opportunities for doing good.

If you teach long enough, tragedy is bound to happen. Sarah is the second student that I am aware of. Mark was my first, shortly after I first began teaching.

Mark took every ounce of patience and kindness that I could muster. He showed up in my class one day with an interpreter because he was deaf. He was a wonderful guy, but he took ten times the amount of effort that every other student took, not necessarily because he was deaf, but because he wasn’t really academically ready for what we were trying to do. Still, he was in my class and I worked with him. He was so proud when he was able to purchase the necessary parts and build his very own PC. I took this picture:

After I heard about his passing, I was so glad that I was patient with him and kept any frustrations I might have had to myself.

Mark & Sarah will serve as a reminder to me to treat each person I meet as if I knew they weren’t going to be here tomorrow because sadly, sometimes it comes true.

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