I remember the first time meeting him face to face. I was in a small closed off room in ninth grade in my old school:Oak Creek High School, waiting for someone to come to the room and ask about what had happened. I wasn’t going to say anything so it wouldn’t have mattered. I thought it would be the principal or the SRO, but there he was, someone I had seen but never talked to:Mr. L. He entered the room and closed the door behind him. First words that left his mouth were, “You’re not in trouble.”

“So then what am I here for?” I said, thinking he was lying to my face.

“I just wanna talk, and get to know you,” he said, in a calm, and friendly tone. He sat down at the table in the chair across from me. He had a friendly face and didn’t seem like he was mad so I went along with it. 

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Humza,” I responded. What had happened next is what had surprised me. He had asked me a bunch of unrelated questions and just wanted to get to know me. Questions like if there was anyone dead or alive I could meet who would it be? I responded and slowly realized he was just trying to get to know me and was being friendly so I continued to answer his questions and eventually he said I could leave without ever asking me about what had happened. 

The next couple weeks we had small conversations and he had always tried to make me feel comfortable and had always stated that if I ever needed anything I could talk to him. 

Eventually a couple of months had gone by and he had called me to his office. He talked about my detentions and how I would make them up. I didn’t want to make them up because of the teacher who had given me them. My English teacher—Ms. Schmitt. We never got along and even now I still think she was by far the worst teacher I had ever had and felt like she was always trying to target me. She was very strict and whenever someone had done something wrong she would ignore it and if I had ever done anything she would call me out and write me up. 

He said “you have two options, either you could serve all your detentions, or you have to be the first to show up to her class three days in a row.” Naturally I thought he was joking at first due to the amount of detentions I had stacked. I realized after a couple of seconds he was being serious. I debated whether or not I would actually follow through and show up to her class first. I chose the second option and had forced myself to follow through. 

After showing up to the class three times as the first student he had actually written off all my detentions and had said I served all of them. Throughout the rest of that school year I had really gotten to know him and realized how friendly and calm he was. 

Even long after I left that building he had still made sure to email me and wish me a happy birthday and whenever I had seen him after leaving school he would always ask how I was doing and making sure I was doing good in school. He left a big impact on my life and was one of the first adults at school who had shown me kindness and actually cared.