Magic of Unconditional Belief

When I think about people who have made a difference in my life, my high school computer science teacher Mr. Knowles is always on the list. To this day, I still vividly remember the way Mr. Knowles strolled down the school hallway after the lunch break. I always saw him come around the corner wearing his scarf regardless of the season. He was always walking down the hallway, nodding his head, and greeting everyone on the left and right. When he saw me, he would open his arm and say, “Edward!” In those moments, I felt his unwavering belief that I could accomplish anything.

Mr. Knowles was a rather unorthodox teacher. He would often start his class by announcing some seemingly unachievable objectives. He did not give out any specific instructions. My classmates and I would move heaven and earth to figure out how to accomplish them. He once asked us to figure out five ways to transfer files between two Ubuntu systems without a USB drive. We demoed the first way pretty quickly by sharing files on Facebook and Dropbox. Mr. Knowles approvingly nodded his head.

After some internet searching, we figured out how to turn on the Ubuntu file sharing feature. The third way was more convoluted. We used the Remote Desktop feature on one computer to control another computer. Then, we grabbed the files with the Remote Desktop program. After reading some online tutorials, a group of grade 10 students somehow figure out how to set up an FTP file server on the computer. I must admit that I will struggle a bit if I need to set up a file server today.

The fifth way was difficult for us. We had juiced out every drip of idea in our brain and could not figure it out. We stared at Mr. Knowles and hoped that he would give some hints. Mr. Knowles shrugged to signal that he was merely an observer. Suddenly, one classmate called us over cheerfully as if he had dug up gold. He found something called Apache, which is a website server software. We read through the installation tutorial and set up the software. We pressed the enter key to trigger the command, then, the white characters started to flood the black screen background. It was like a light ray piercing through the cloud. We connected to the webserver on another computer and downloaded the file. Mr. Knowles clapped his hands and said excitingly, “well done, well done” to students left and right. Mr. Knowles didn’t have a list of five ways to share files on Ubuntu. He believed in our ability to figure it out on our own.

Mr. Knowles was more than a computer science teacher to many students. There was one time when he substituted my career studies teacher. My class was working on our resume and cover letter assignment in a computer room. I was writing a resume for a grocery store cashier position. Mr. Knowles saw my resume and said in a very caring tone, “Edward, you are pretty good at programming. I am sure you can find a software development job. If you cannot go to university and find a software job, you can start your own company.” I have never seen a teacher so concerned about me and felt a bit guilty. I immediately said, “don’t worry, Mr. Knowles. It is just a school assignment; I still plan to study computer science at the university.” Mr. Knowles saw the value and potential in me that even I cannot imagine.

Mr. Knowles is an amazing teacher. He doesn’t know more than any other high school teacher. The magic of Mr. Knowles is his unconditional belief in his students to accomplish greatness, beyond what we can imagine ourselves. I know it is difficult to support a friend without judgement, have some faith in a family member, and believe in yourself. These days, the future has become ever more unpredictable. Nonetheless, there is no better gift that you can give others and yourself than a little bit of unconditional belief.