I’m about to reveal my age, but a couple of weekends ago I attended my 40th high school class reunion. It was great seeing old friends again and catching up on the past four decades. The weekend was filled with laughter, and Kathy and I are so glad that we went. The experience prompts me to share a story about something that had lingered on for the past 40 years and is finally now behind us.
In our senior year of high school, we were playing the No. 1 team in our division in football and we went into the game as 21-point underdogs. Well, we played extremely well and with one minute left in the fourth quarter, the score was tied 0-0. The opposing team then drove the ball all the way down the field to our 1-yard line, and we held them for four downs! To this day, it is remembered as one of the best goal-line stands in the history of our school. We got the ball back with 30 seconds left in the game. Our quarterback took the snap from center, dropped back to pass and was tackled in the end zone. We lost that game 2-0.
Well, it has haunted all of us, especially our quarterback, for the past 40 years. At the reunion, one of our teammates brought a full football uniform to the picnic for our quarterback to wear as we re-enacted that play on the beach. We huddled up, lined up in formation, and our quarterback took the snap, dropped back and threw for a touchdown. It took 40 years to correct that mistake, but that chapter is now closed in our lives.
I share that to say, “Don’t wait 40 years to correct the mistakes we make today!” In our daily lives, we will all fall short in small and not so small ways – sometimes in private and other times in very public ways. That just means we’re human. The true test for each of us is in how we respond to our mistakes. Do we admit them, learn from them and move on? Or do we waste time blaming others and ignoring the lessons each mistake has for us? Do we hold grudges when others make mistakes, or do we forgive and help them move forward?
One focus for our district this year is on building relationships – in our classrooms, our schools, our lunchrooms, our buses and all across our community. Our humanity ensures this will be an imperfect process. But our commitment to kids forces us to find ways to succeed. I hope our school district is a place where people feel comfortable taking risks to make things better for kids. We might fall short, but we can’t ever stop trying new and creative ideas.
Before I close, I wanted give you a few quick news updates. First, let me remind you that I am now on Twitter and have been sending out tweets periodically. You can sign up on Twitter if you would like to sign up to receive these updates. We are in our third week of school, and I hope you have gotten off to a great start! Overall, our student enrollment has increased by about 1,000 students as compared to last year at this time. Welcome to our new families! Also, last week I sent a letter home with all students regarding updates related to the H1N1 flu. As we continue to receive information, we will keep you posted.
This past weekend, Fayette County hosted our first Football Frenzy where we partnered with iHigh.com and hosted five games at Tates Creek High School. It was an exciting time for all who attended, and iHigh streamed the games on the Internet. Please check out http://www.ihigh.com/KY/ to see future streaming of our games. Special thanks to all who worked so hard to make this a success!
I’ll leave you with a final thought about making mistakes from leadership expert John Maxwell:
Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime. Thomas Edison was considered unteachable as a child. Albert Einstein was told by a Munich schoolmaster that he would never amount to much. “Great achievers are given multiple reasons to believe they are failures. But in spite of that, they persevere.”
