Most Inspiring Moment/Story in your life

I was feeling a bit “blah”, feeling fat and unappreciated.
I was at work, supervising the kids on the oval and I made a snarky comment about me being “fat”, one of the kids called one out and said “that’s a lie, you’re the perfect shape for you”.

Until the middle of this year when I got permanency I taught at a wide variety of primary schools. There was one that I was at for about four years, doing all sorts of subjects and I got to know all the kids pretty well. There was a family of three sisters who I taught at various stages. Anyway, I went off to a couple of other schools for a few years then managed to come back when the youngest was in her final year, although I didn't teach her at that time. Her sisters would pick her up occasionally and would always stop by my room and say hi. At the final assembly, when the graduating class were presented with awards and so forth, the girls mum stopped by and thanked me for the way I had treated her girls and for being their favourite teacher over the course of their schooling: apparently they would always come home with a "Mr Banks story" or something interesting I'd said. I'd been teaching for a little over a decade at that point and had been at about half-a-dozen schools and, because of this inconstant employment, felt very dislocated in my professional life. It kept me going at a time when I was feeling very disillusioned about my prospects and talents.

Talking someone out of a suicide attempt. It's got to be one of the most harrowing experiences of my life, but it's the one that my brain always pops back into my head whenever I need a bit of determination. What may have ultimately saved that man's life was that I'd never met him before. I was a complete stranger and yet, I still cared enough about his life to be scrambling for reasons why he could continue here with us. My mind always pulls me up by the lapels and reminds me that if I wasn't good with my words, if I really wasn't tolerant and kind, a person would have literally died.

It's important to remember that if life gets too difficult sometimes, someone, somewhere always cares about you. I certainly care and there are literally thousands of others who care as well. For one very simple reason, whatever your brain might be trying to tell you, we believe completely that your life matters. Because it does. Unequivocally.