"The love and kindness offered from one simple act by one single person grows exponentially when put out into the world."
While attending the celebration of life dedicated to my high school calculus teacher, I read this piece of insight left by his family. They wrote that my teacher had spent his life following the words that this quote says, and I most definitely believe it.
During my senior year of high school, I took AP Calculus with a man named Page Mauck. I have always been relatively good at math, but calculus was a real challenge for me. Each and every Thursday before my Friday math quizzes, I would stay after school working with Mr. Mauck on problems.
One day, he had been working in the garden before coming to tutorial and had collected a couple of flowers and honeysuckle. He brought these to our after school group study session and offered me one. The next day, I got a 100 percent on my quiz. I kept the flower for the remainder of the year as a symbol of good luck, and even as the flower wilted away, I continued to smell its withering sweet scent before each quiz.
Even after graduation, this flower symbolized luck to me. Before I left for college, I held the flower and knew that all would be well. This small, random act of kindness proved to be incredibly helpful for me.
After Mr. Mauck's passing this past March, I learned that I was not the only one who had stories to tell such as this one. All of Mr. Mauck's students from the past 32 years had heartwarming stories to tell about this wonderful teacher and friend. The patience, kindness, and humility that Mr. Mauck showed was -- and continues to be -- an inspiration to all who knew him. I know that I am most definitely a better person simply for having known him.
I live my life trying to show the same kindness that Mr. Mauck showed for the world. I like to think that happiness is like glitter. When you throw it about, it sticks to absolutely everything. No matter how hard you try to clean it all up, it never seems to go away. You continue to find it months or even years later. And that is the best part.
Although this incredible person may not be with us on Earth any longer, his spirit will continue to flow through each and every person he knew. The joy he brought to others and the kindness he showed lives on through his students, friends, family, and everyone else who came in contact with him throughout his far too short 57-year life.
Rachel Joy Scott, the first victim of the Columbine High School massacre once said, "I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go." I think that this life motto is incredibly important because one never truly understands how significant one single act of kindness can be to another person.
So throw kindness around like confetti. The world thanks you.
