Graduating from High School isn't always the answer...

I’m super proud of this... I got an unexpected and really nice email from a past high school teacher yesterday, who at one point petitioned to have me expelled from school for missing class and as he said, I was a “waste of his time” and should be placed in an “alternative” school.

He said he came across my TEDx talk and somewhat reluctantly watched it. He went on to say, “I was in awe of your brilliance on stage”, by the end he said he was sorry for not recognizing that I wasn’t a “bad” kid, but that perhaps I just learned differently. I often credit my high school principal Ric Hodgson as the ONLY reason I didn’t become just a stat. His micro decision(s) to keep me in school is the reason, in part, I am who I am and why I have been able to build my company and have a life and a family I’m proud of.

So the truth is, I never actually graduated from high school, never got the needed number of credits. When our convocation took place, I sat in the crowd and watched my future business partner give the valedictorian speech. He went on to be an honours students in University and I a manager at the local aquarium shop.

The weird part or perhaps the full circle of this story is that I will speak at my old high school’s graduation on Thursday where I will award a student the “Stu Saunders Leadership Scholarship”. It’s for a student that demonstrates leadership and gives to the life of the school. It’s not based on academics.

Which got me thinking, I’m not sure the current administration knows that I didn’t graduate and this will be the first time I have “walked across the stage”.

Yah, it is full circle.

Here’s that TEDx I did!