Inspirational Stories

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

She was not beautiful
Nothing about her was extraordinary
Nothing about her made her stand out in a crowd.
She grew up in a family of six and being the eldest she learned responsibility at an early age.

As she grew stronger and brighter, she instilled a sort of light and cheer to whomever she met.
She was not beautiful, but she made others feel better about themselves.
She meets a rebel boy who thinks he is all man befriending him, she teaches him.
She teaches him how to read and a little boost, the ' man' needed to go to college,

They become fast friends and she fell fast in love with her rugged handsome student.
The ' man' then finds himself in love with a girl.
A girl who was so beautiful
Her hair was a hallow of light around her
Her eyes the bluest blue of the ocean.

' Like an angel' he tells his tutor ' like a beautiful angel.'
The girl swallows a lump at her throat

She was not beautiful
She did not possess the heart of the one he loved, but she did not care.
As long as he was happy, she would be happy, or so she tried to.

She helped write the most beautiful letters to his angel
All the time visioning it was she herself recieving those very letters.

And so the girl helped him choose the right clothes, say the right words,
and buy the right gifts for his angel.
His angel brought him much joy and much pain to the girl who cried behind her smiles.
But that never stopped her from giving more than she will ever receive.

Then one day, all of h--- broke loose
The angel he loved left him for another man
A richer more successful man
The boy was stunned
He was so hurt, he did not speak for days
The girl went to him
He cried on her shoulder and she cried with him.
He was hurt and she was too.

Time went by and so wounds heal
The boy realizes something about his friend/tutor
Something he never realized before
How her laughter sounded heavenly and how her smiles brightened up the darkest days,
or how simply beautiful she looked to him!

Beautiful. This plain, simple girl was beautiful to him
And he began to fall.
Fall so in love with this beautiful girl
On one day, he picked up all his courage to see her
He walked to her house, nervous, and fidgeting,
Running his thoughts over and over his head.

He was going to tell her how beautiful she was to him
He was going to tell her how wonderfully in love he was with her.
He knocked. No one was home.
The next day, he found out that the beautiful girl he fell in love with had
a brain tumor that put her into a coma.
The doctors were grim and the family decided to let her go.

One final time he got to see her
He held her hand
He stroked her hair and he cried for this beautiful girl.
He cried, but it was too late.
The beautiful girl was buried and the heavens broke.
Out a beautiful spring shower, a cry for their loss.
She was the most beautiful girl in the world and she had taught the rebel
boy-man to love and what it is to be loved.
She was the most beautiful girl in the world.

Look around. Isn't there a lot of plain faces?
Take a good look. A real good look, or you might just miss out that beautiful person.
Forever....

-Author Unknown

Mr. Washington

One day in 11th grade, I went into a classroom to wait for a friend of mine. When I went into the room, the teacher, Mr. Washington, suddenly appeared and asked me to go to the board to write something, to work something out. I told him that I couldn’t do it. And he said, "Why not?"

I said, "Because I’m not one of your students."

He said, "It doesn’t matter. Go to the board anyhow."

I said, "I can’t do that."

He said, "Why not?"

And I paused because I was somewhat embarrassed. I said, "Because I’m Educable Mentally Retarded."

He came from behind his desk and he looked at me and he said, "Don’t ever say that again. Someone’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality."

It was a very liberating moment for me. On one hand, I was humiliated because the other students laughed at me. They knew that I was in Special Education. But on the other hand, I was liberated because he began to bring to my attention that I did have to live within the context of what another person’s view of me was.

And so Mr. Washington became my mentor. Prior to this experience, I had failed twice in school. I was identified as Educable Mentally Retarded in the fifth grade, was put back from the fifth grade into the fourth grade, and failed again, when I was in the eighth grade. So this person made a dramatic difference in my life.

I always say that he operates in the consciousness of Goethe, who said, "Look at a man the way that he is, he only becomes worse. But look at him as if he were what he could be, and then he becomes what he should be." Like Calvin Lloyd, Mr. Washington believed that "Nobody rises to low expectations." This man always gave students the feeling that he had high expectations for them and we strove, all of the students strove, to live up to what those expectations were.

One day, when I was still a junior, I heard him giving a speech to some graduating seniors. He said to them, "You have greatness within you. You have something special. If just one of you can get a glimpse of a larger vision of yourself, of who you really are, of what it is you bring to the planet, of your specialness, then in a historical context, the world will never be the same again. You can make your parents proud. You can make your school proud. You can make your community proud. You can touch millions of people’s lives." He was talking to the seniors, but it seemed like that speech was for me.

I remember when they gave him a standing ovation. Afterwards, I caught up to him in the parking lot and I said, "Mr. Washington, do you remember me? I was in the auditorium when you were talking to the seniors."

He said, "What were you doing there? You are a junior."

I said, "I know. But that speech you were giving, I heard your voice coming through the auditorium doors. That speech was for me, Sir. You said they had greatness within them. I was in that auditorium. Is there greatness within me, Sir?"

He said, "Yes, Mr. Brown."

"But what about the fact that I failed English and math and history, and I’m going to have to go to summer school. What about that, Sir? I’m slower than most kids. I’m not as smart as my brother or my sister who’s going to the University of Miami."

"It doesn’t matter. It just means that you have to work harder. Your grades don’t determine who you are or what you can produce in your life."

"I want to buy my mother a home."

"It’s possible, Mr. Brown. You can do that." And he turned to walk away again.

"Mr. Washington?"

"What do you want now?"

"Uh, I’m the one, Sir. You remember me, remember my name. One day you’re gonna hear it. I’m gonna make you proud. I’m the one, Sir."

School was a real struggle for me. I was passed from one grade to another because I was not a bad kid. I was a nice kid; I was a fun kid. I made people laugh. I was polite. I was respectful. So teachers would pass me on, which was not helpful to me. But Mr. Washington made demands on me. He made me accountable. But he enabled me to believe that I could handle it, that I could do it.

He became my instructor my senior year, even though I was Special Education. Normally, Special Ed students don’t take

Speech and Drama, but they made special provisions for me to be with him. The principal realized the kind of bonding that had taken place and the impact that he’d made on me because I had begun to do well academically. For the first time in my life I the honor roll. I wanted to travel on a trip with the drama and you had to be on the honor roll in order to make the trip out of town. That was a miracle for me!

Mr. Washington restructured my own picture of who I am. He gave me a larger vision of myself, beyond my mental conditioning my circumstances.

Years later, I produced five specials that appeared on public television. I had some friends call him when my program, 'You Deserve,' was on the educational television channel in Miami. I was sitting by the phone waiting when he called me in Detroit. He said, "May I speak to Mr. Brown, please?"

"Who’s calling?"

"You know who’s calling."

"Oh, Mr. Washington, it’s you."

"You were the one, weren’t you?"

"Yes, Sir, I was."

- Les Brown, A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul

Food for Thought !

"Life is illogical. It is wild. In life, contradictions are not contradictions but complementariness."

- Anonymous

If this page means something to you, please pass it on to a friend or two or you can tell the URL address of this site. Thank you.