The fate of the future may very well rest in your hands. You see, when you’re a teacher, you’re not just impacting someone’s education. You have the potential to impact their life.

There are kids out there, brilliant kids, who never see their dreams come true because the school is more concerned about standardized test scores and GPAs than about why an intelligent student is struggling to turn in homework assignments.

I have experienced this first hand. I am not stupid and I am not lazy. From kindergarten through seventh grade, I excelled in school. I was in the advanced classes and actually enjoyed school. In eighth grade, I saw my grades spiral downward as I hit a huge depression that ripped apart my life, taking my motivation with it. Thankfully, my teachers at the time recognized that a previously A student was suddenly getting C’s and were able to reach out to me.

However, my teachers in high school didn’t recognize any of it. They never bothered to ask why I was struggling to turn in assignments or falling asleep in class. I was just a number to them; another student that ensured their paycheck. And in turn, I decided not to care either.

Sometimes, kids are hard to reach; I know that. But sometimes, they want to know someone cares. Believe it or not, these kids don’t all have perfect home lives. Until you ask, you don’t know what’s going on, but unless you ask, you may never know their potential. I’ve heard the stories of kids with broken families, and the rest of the world telling them they’ve got no shot at even graduating high school, going on to graduate from Harvard. With honors. They excelled because someone in their life made them believe they had a chance.

You’re interacting with these students for eight hours a day, five days a week. That’s more than many of their parents even get. Maybe you don’t get to see all of them for that amount of time, but what time you do have, is your chance to change a kid’s life. To shape the future of our world. The kid who is struggling through algebra right now, because his dad left and his mom’s an abusive alcoholic, and he doesn’t believe he can ever escape the brokenness, could be the next J.K. Rowling.

The truth is, the more you believe in these kids and see them as human beings with potential, the more they will too. And if you’re more concerned with your students GPA than seeing them as a person, you’re doing it wrong.

So take time to invest not just in the students’ education, but in their lives. These kids are shaping our world. They are the leaders of tomorrow. You may be gone someday, but when you invest in a student, you leave a legacy that might just change the world.