We asked some of the brightest folks from within the community to reflect back on their days in school and to share with us a story of when they learned a particularly important or impactful lesson. We’ve shared highlights below.

Taylor Thomas

I’m not quite sure what led to the events of me being called into the principal’s office in fourth grade with clear detail but I knew that the big picture was due to a newspaper article. I had tried out for a school paper and really really wanted to write about Andy Roddick (I did not play tennis, I have no idea why I wanted to write about him but I was adamant.) I was told in no short of words that I was not able to write what I wanted and that in fact, there was no space in the journaling club to even be apart of it. Fourth grade me was annoyed but determined. Read more>>

Rudy Allison Rodriguez

One of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned happened during college. My professor handed me a signed copy of his book at the end of the semester. Inside, he’d written: “Rudy, keep writing. You’re good at it.”

That simple sentence hit me harder than any lecture ever did. I was just figuring things out and mostly hoping no one would notice I was winging it. But in that moment, someone saw something in me that I hadn’t yet seen in myself. Read more>>

Melissa Rohlfs

I think the most important lesson I’ve learned came as a result of my health and life coach training and that is to replace judgment with curiosity. For so much of my life, I was so critical and judgmental of myself and others ~ how I looked, my body, my weight, if I was “enough” as a wife and mom and it was exhausting. From the time I was young it was a constant comparison game and no one wins in that game! Read more>>

Gigi Turner

During my graduate studies in psychology, I encountered a lesson that transformed not only my approach to helping others but also the trajectory of my own life. It was during a research seminar, late in the afternoon, in a quiet, sunlit corner of the university library. I was studying the psychological impacts of trauma and resilience, focusing on how stress manifests in the body and mind. At the time, my world revolved around theories, clinical cases, and carefully measured data. Yet, despite the clinical precision, there was an elusive thread that kept emerging—a pattern suggesting that healing wasn’t solely rooted in talking or thinking, but in something deeper, something beyond words. Read more>>