Be Great

This week I had the privilege to attend the annual Boys and Girls Club's Be Great breakfast. This is an annual fundraiser for Greene County's Boys and Girls Club and one that I really enjoy. We get to hear from several of our local students and there is always an entertaining speaker. This year's speaker was David Sawyer, former meteorologist and current minister in Snow Hill. David said a lot about how organizations like this impact our community, but one part stuck out to me. He quoted something that I often say to students in my office. He told us that psychology finds that we are an average of the five people he spend the most time with. I use this line to remind students to hang out with people that will bring positivity to their lives. They should find people that push them academically and socially. His argument for this was that organizations like our Boys and Girls Club force children to be surrounded by positive influences in adults and peers.

For some reason that morning, I heard those words, not as a comment on children, but as advice for us all. My last year of teaching in the classroom was pretty miserable. The group of teachers that I usually ate lunch with had turned our few precious moments to eat into a daily gripe session and at some point, I had joined in. It was months before I recognized what I had become and how it was impacting me. Once I knew, I separated myself from everyone just to avoid it all. Surrounding yourself with positive people and people that push you in the right direction beyond your comfort zone makes you better despite age, race or socio-economic status. Being that person for others that surround you in return fulfills a need for the group.

As you finish out your PDPs and reflect on your year in our final weeks, be sure to take account of the five people that surround you professionally. Evaluate what you bring to one another as a group and think about how you all average out as a result. This is one area that we can learn a lot from what we tell children.