Daily Prompt – March 22, 2026

This is a difficult question for me. I’ve had many teachers who were positive influences in my life. I’m honestly struggling to determine which of them was the most influential because it was all in different ways. Even the teachers that I didn’t like and I felt were negative towards me, had an important impact on my life.

I could go with my 4th grade teacher who accused me of cheating and led to me being tested for learning disabilities as that led to so much improvement in school for me. I could go with the weird 7th grade science teacher who seemed to have it out for me and sent home cryptic notes because he taught me that perception is important. I could go with my high school band teacher who was amazing in more ways than I can count. He was funny, supportive, challenge, and caring. He encouraged all of us to do better. I believe he saw things in me I struggled to see and want to help me see them. I always thought of him very much like Mr. Holland from Mr. Holland’s Opus. I could go with my first chemistry teacher who I also had for earth science because he made me realize how much I truly loved science. I could go with my high school physics teacher who never told us if we got the problem right because he taught me how to deal with difficult people. I could go with the professor that I had for my help desk class because without her encouragement to apply for an IT specialist job in her department I never would have ended up working for the community college where I found the medical lab program and never would have ended up in my current career path.

How do I choose? Who would you choose?