Paying It Forward

In 2012, the first Laura A. Cirrincione Education Scholarship, endowed at my alma mater, the State University of New York at Fredonia, was presented.  The award rotates annually  between elementary education, secondary education and music education majors. This morning a TESOL major (Teachers of Students of other Languages) was presented with  $1000/£760/€850 with which to continue her education.

In my absence, a member of the College Foundation read a few remarks on my behalf.  The following is a (quite heavily) edited version: 

"I’ll leave you with just two thoughts:

Find your niche.  You might be quite confident at this moment what will make you happy but life does not follow a straight path.  At my first interview the principal asked me if I could teach math.  The last time I studied any serious math was trig in high school. I asked the principal to show me the eighth grade book.  After leafing through it I said, "absolutely!"  I was hired on the spot.

"I got my math certificate five years later and ended up teaching math and science in both middle and elementary schools. Did I mention I went to Fredonia to study Music Education?" 

"Finding your niche may take some time but be patient because you’ll know it when you feel  it.  Live up to your expectations not the expectations of others.

Let me leave you with these words:

     "One Hundred Years from now it will not matter 
              what kind of house I lived in, how much money 
              I had, nor what my clothes were like.  
              But the world may be a little better because 
              I was important to the life of a child."