The responses to last week’s story about my Uncle Jack showed that many of you have had similar influences in your lives. I’d like to continue our theme from last week with another tale of how an uncle made a huge impact in his young nephew’s life.
One of my mentors grew up during the Depression in a small, dusty town in West Texas. His family was poor, so during his high school years he worked for an oil company cleaning out oil drums in the often-scorching Texas heat. Though he was a very intelligent young man it seemed like that little town was all his future held – until he got some surprising news.
One of his uncles told my mentor that he would be continuing his education at the local community college. My mentor was shocked because his family couldn’t afford any kind of college education for him and he had therefore assumed it was beyond his reach. His uncle told my mentor that he would cover the cost of tuition and that my mentor should just focus on doing the best he could to prove himself.
My mentor took that advice to heart, graduating from the community college with good enough grades that he received an ROTC scholarship to Texas A&M University. After graduating from A&M he went on to a distinguished career in the United States Air Force, rising to the rank of Lieutenant General (3 stars), serving as the director for plans and policy on the Joint Staff and as Vice Commander in Chief of Pacific Air Forces.
None of these extraordinary achievements would have been possible if his uncle hadn’t given him that first leg up in sending him to community college.
This will be the last Words of Encouragement until after the holidays. We would like to take the time to thank all of our readers. In the last year we launched our website and blog and tripled our weekly readership. Your support has been instrumental in our continued growth and success, and we are extremely grateful for it. We are eagerly looking forward to what the next year will bring for Ro’s Words of Encouragement.
Happy Holidays,
Ro and the Words of Encouragement staff