So I’ve been contemplating my existence on FB and whether or not to continue or just chuck it and delete my account. What keeps me going is contact with a select few… one of whom is my sophomore English teacher. Holy cats, this woman is one of the funniest, kindest, smartest people I know. Love her.
So I log into FB this morning and she has one of those goofy cartoons posted… I rarely find them amusing, this one I thought was hilarious. First, I refuse to call her by her first name and she refuses to answer to Mrs. T— because I’m going to be thirty-seven and she hasn’t been my teacher for, um, twenty years. As such, we came to an agreement. I offered a selection of goofy names and she selected Gert. Ever since, she’s been Gert to me. This is what Gert posted this morning:
I’ll be honest… usually I find myself wishing the creator of these things would fall down a manhole because I think 99.9% of them are stupid. This one, however, brought about a far different response. As I told Gert, it was more of a howling-with-laughter-and-covering-my-mouth-to-hush-up response.
Gert, is to me, one of the most wonderful persons I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. I was a very overweight, withdrawn teenager when I was in her class. She looked at me one day and said, “Never try to be anyone other than yourself. We will love you for who you are.” That profound statement has been with me all these years and has influenced my life more than I can say. And I’ve always thought Gert was lovely and hysterically funny. She’s not thin, but to me she was beautiful. You’d have to know Gert, but there’s just something about her that’s infectious and you can’t help being drawn to her and loving being around her.
Part of me reacted strongly to this image because I could just hear her wisecracking it.
The other part of me could relate in a twisted way… It was a pain in the butt to be overweight and have my wit, beauty, and intelligence overlooked simply because my shape was less than perfect. There’s more to a person than the wrapping paper… it’s the contents that matter. Now I’m thinner, but I’m still overweight according to the insurance carriers and doctors. Whatever. I’m happy and in a territory that’s sustainable. My body was never meant to be skinny. At size 6 I’d be disproportionate and look ill. And I’d have to exist on a diet of crunchy water and rice cakes or something equally appalling. I’d rather be a bit lumpy and healthy-looking. I’d rather be a person who is comfortable to hug and not all elbows and ribs poking out. I’d rather be comfortable to the nieces and nephews I snuggle. And that’s okay.
I’m a heckuva long way from the overweight, withdrawn teenager who was blessed to walk into Gert’s English class. Sure, she made English bearable (nope, this bookworm has never enjoyed English as a class), but she made a far greater and lasting impact on me by encouraging me to be the person I was designed to be. And to not apologize for it. I am who I am and that’s who I was designed to be… a smart cookie with an off kilter sense of humor, a highly introverted (but not shy!) tendency, and a big heart for those she loves who is sometimes a little too cerebral for her own good. And while my outsides are a lot healthier than they used to be, it’s those insides that matter.
P.S. She’s the first person to have me take the Myers-Briggs personality test… I was, and still am, a hyper-ISTJ. I’m abnormally far over on the scale of all of those identifiers. Crazy. Don’t try to be me, it’s not without its challenges!
I’m with you on this one, but it was funny!
Thanks, Baz!
I shy away from making intrusive remarks but I have to say what recent pictures of yours I have seen recently reveal a very pleasant looking lady with lovely eyes and. not overly thin or fat so certainly not “an ugly duckling” hiding a beautiful swan inside herself. More of a swan who doesn’t realise how beautiful she is yet.
As to being introverted, the most interesting people are often the hardest to get to know, and the most loyal once you earn their trust. You have much to be proud of, and recognising the part that Gert had in helping you down that path is typical of the person you have become. so there !
Ducky, if I could hug you, I would! You are such a sweet man… please tell me the ladies in your family know this! Particularly your wife and girls!
you make me laugh…
Hey, by the way… I am an ISTJ— extreme one!—too. No wonder I like you!
Steph! Hi! I keep thinking, “When I finally get to UK, I have to swing through Wales to see Steph and the fam.” No, no plans to visit in the near future, but the UK is on my list of I-might-die-if-I-don’t-get-to-visit-there places.
Have you noticed a lot of people think ISTJs are weird? I’ve taken the test at three different times in my life and scored 10-0, 9-1, 10-0, 10-0 (and realized that solitary 1 is a learned behavior and not my natural inclination)… what confuses people is that I’m not shy.
But I like us ISTJs… I think you may be right, it’s one of the reasons we’ve always gotten along so well! We invest in people, notice them, those kinds of things.
And if you didn’t figure it out… Gert was also a cheer advisor for years, taught drama, had well known (and ugly) couches in her room on the stage, and let us use her room for the Christian club.