A Moment with Mrs. Myers

Most of us have that teacher—the one who made school worth it or fun. Maybe they believed in you when no one else did, pushing you in all the ways you needed to be pushed to recognize your own potential.

For me, that teacher is Mrs. Anna Myers.

She was my eighthgrade English teacher. Where other kids in my class were scared of her, I was giddy. You see, I was a reader, and Mrs. Myers was the first-ever author I met. I read pretty much every book she had out then, and though I had also heard the rumors, I was eager to be in her class.

She was just as tough as people said, but you can bet I still remember how to diagram a sentence and probably most, if not all, of the grammar rules she taught (which came in handy with my career).

Mrs. Myers was also the first person to tell me I should be a writer.

Back then, at the tender age of 14, I didn’t realize how big an impact that had on me. I do remember telling my mom shortly after that I had decided I wanted to be a writer, but that was it.

Today, I look back on that day in Mrs. Myers’ class with stark clarity. That was the moment my entire life shifted. I ended up going to journalism school and became a reporter and copy editor. All the while still writing fiction in my spare time and dreaming about someday being a full-time author.

I have managed to selfpublish two novels, but they haven’t done very well. That’s the struggle of a self-published author. You have to do it all—editing, publishing, marketing, etc. It’s too much at times and I’m admittedly not great at self-marketing.

But last week, I had the joy of seeing Mrs. Myers again.

I went to her daughter’s book signing (Ginny Myers Sain), not expecting that she would be there. When I turned around and saw Mrs. Myers—heard her greet me by name—I wanted to cry. I didn’t. Instead, we sat down, and I told her about my career and that I was still writing, even if I hadn’t found success yet. I told her about how much that day she wrote, “You should be a writer,” on my short story meant to me.

It was unbelievable. Of course, Mrs. Myers then made it even better. She wrote down her contact information and told me to keep in touch. She wanted to talk about plots, go over my writing, and help me finally get a book published by a traditional publisher. I was overwhelmed, of course, and incredibly touched that all these years later, she still had that solid belief in me.

Right before I left, she commented that a teacher misses teaching sometimes. I quipped that I would be her student again. Mrs. Myers smiled and shook her head.

“No, this time, we’ll be partners.”