A week into my second semester of my Freshman year of college I've realized just how much I truly miss high school. Sometimes, you don't get that close with professors on college campuses, not usually at least, and it's really sad when you graduate high school, and have to leave your favorite teacher behind.
Fortunately for me, I had a brother who was a senior while I was a freshman in high school, so I never had to worry about anything. Except for maybe having senioritis my first year, which made the next four years of high school very long.
I started out high school unknowing of what I wanted to study in college, let alone who I wanted to be after college. The first year of high school you generally have to take your required core classes, and when it came to electives I picked classes like "Intro to Health Occupations," which was the biggest mistake of my high school career. When you don't take classes you're interested in, you become less motivated to succeed, let alone attend class. On top of not being interested in my classes, I begun my struggle with migraines in high school and I had my first knee surgery that year.
My brother, at that point had figured out that business classes in high school were the way to go for him, so I followed suit my second half of sophomore year. That is how I met one of the most influential women of my life. She was bubbly, obsessed with Starbucks and rottweilers and was the head of the business department.
The course was "Business Principals" and laid out the complete basics like ethics. It was the first class I had during the day, so I stepped up my attendance. Through my junior and senior year of high school, I probably managed to take every business course my high school had to offer. It was the greatest thing to happen to me.
My first business teacher, and by far the best teacher I had throughout the course of my educational experience, is the reason I not only fell in love with learning, but the reason I fell in love with life. I watched her struggle with her own life obstacles and she rarely let it show that she was dealing with something. She got the phone call during my class period that she had to put her dogs down, and it is still the most heartbreaking thing I've probably ever witnessed.
She chose me to be the head manager of the school store, lead a team of managers and a class of student employees. It was a phenomenal opportunity that I am forever grateful for. She pushed me to succeed from day one. She saw my potential and she made it her duty to make me realize the place I hold in the world.
She was a second mother to me. She watched me struggle through two relationships. She pointed out how much happier I looked and how I looked less stressed out. She watched drama unfold with my friends, she knew when I lost friends and when I gained them. She taught me how to deal with drama and how to smile when life got rough.
She may be blonde and I may be brunette, but neither of us can deny that I was called her "mini-me" during my last two years of high school. We have the same attitude, we both get disappointed when we don't succeed as well as we hoped and we both have outgoing personalities.
She is an inspirational woman. She was my role model throughout high school, and I couldn't have asked for a better person to teach me in the classroom, while teaching me about the world outside of those high school walls.
I owe her far more than a thank you, but thank you Huber.
