Page 34 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2017 - Online Magazine

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Senior Senior

Teaching More than Spanish

by Jordan Wilson

In middle school, together. Mrs. Sumrow wouldn’t have that.
I was introduced Every day, she encouraged me to keep going.
to the Spanish She showed me what it meant to believe in
language. I fell God and in myself.
in love, thanks
to my wonderful Bevalynn Sumrow, a teacher of Spanish, and
teachers and the a teacher of life, impacted my life and the
beautiful culture life of other students for twenty-seven years.
of Spain and other She is now retired, but she has never stopped
Spanish speaking teaching. Mrs. Sumrow has a lot of wisdom to
countries. I didn’t pass on to the younger generations. Instead of
want to abandon telling about that wisdom, I asked her to share
this love when I exactly what she’d like to pass on…
left middle school “Teaching for 27 years has been one of the
behind me, so most rewarding experiences of my life. I have
the first class I
signed up for when I got to good ol’ Lubbock- spent the majority of those years teaching
high school Spanish I, II, and III, and have
Cooper High, was Spanish. Bevalynn Sumrow discovered that teenagers are wonderful,
introduced herself as my teacher on the first awesome and tremendously enjoyable. Among
day of school, and I knew my already high the many tasks of teaching, I always felt I had
expectations for this class would be surpassed.
a moral obligation to teach my students more
Besides being a superb Spanish teacher, than Spanish. Often, opportunities arose to
Mrs. Sumrow is a woman of great faith. Her discuss challenges in their lives as maturing
faith led her to teach her students lessons young adults, and the level of understanding
that they could apply to their lives even varied greatly from student to student. The
after graduation. She taught her students to following are traits and life lessons we felt
find what they believe in and stick to their were important…
convictions, and she taught them to never give • Live your life with INTEGRITY.
up no matter how hard the situation.
• Life can be difficult, life is not always fair,
The lessons learned but LIFE HAPPENS. The manner in which
in Mrs. Sumrow’s you handle tough times in your life is the
classroom helped difference between surviving and crumbling
me through the most during those times. Remember, tough times
difficult years of my are only a single “scene” in a long lifetime of
life so far. I struggled events. Suicide is NEVER the answer.
with severe depression • Make time in your day for spiritual growth;
and anxiety during pray and spend time with God daily.
my Freshman and • Opportunities are never lost, they are only
Sophomore years. I passed on to the next person who will gladly
stopped doing my
school work, I stopped singing in choir, and I accept them.
stopped talking to my friends. It grew to the • Voluntarily do chores, help those in need,
point that I wanted to give up on school all and volunteer for worthy causes.

34 Lubbock Senior Link