Unfiltered Story #262539

At the time, I am in my final year of high school. All throughout high school and intermediate I took Spanish classes, preparing for an exchange to Spain. I worked for years to save up the money. As it was my final year, I was supposed to have priority placement, since I would never get another chance. But my Spanish teacher refused to let me come, though younger students that were meant to be lower priority were allowed to go. Unsurprisingly, I dropped Spanish and am feeling pretty depressed. During study class, I mention my story to the supervising teacher, who is also the Japanese teacher, though I didn’t know that at the time.

Me: It’s just so unfair you know? I didn’t even want to take Spanish. I just did it for the trip. I wanted to take Japanese but they didn’t offer it in Intermediate.

The teacher gets a determined look on her face and pulls a book out from under her desk.

Teacher: You did? Here. Study this. Technically it’s too late to go on the trip to Japan, but I think I can convince them to make an exception if you work hard.

Stunned, I begin to study. She tutors me personally for free every lunch time and study period. I work hard, not wanting to blow off her generosity. Eventually, I get the good news. I’m going to Japan! I had been feeling horrible about myself and all the time I wasted, but that teacher gave me a chance to make it much better. I will always be grateful to her for leaping in to help me and going above and beyond like that. I hope that one day I can be for someone the person she was for me. Arigato gozaimasu!