It was “Dr. Seuss Week” at my daughter’s elementary school. The teachers had planned a different theme for each day of the week, and Wednesday was “Word Day.”
The students’ assignment was to pick a word that was special to them and come to school in a way that reflected the meaning of that word.
Most of the kids chose the sort of benign words that you would expect from someone their age. My daughter’s word was “princess.” She dressed up in a purple Disney dress and wore a plastic crown. One of her friends picked the word “blue” because it was his favorite color. Or course, he draped himself head-to-toe in blue clothes.
As we walked to school that morning, there was a commotion coming from near the crosswalk up ahead of us. When we got closer, I realized the source of the commotion was a boy standing on the corner with a sign around his neck. He was yelling into a small megaphone.
The boy was my daughter’s classmate Ethan Tasior—or as I’ve come to know him, Ethan the Encourager.
His sign had the word he had chosen printed on it—“encouragement’—and coming from his megaphone were very appropriate phrases.
“Don’t give up!”
“You can do it!”
“Keep up the good work!”
(You can view a short video of him yelling into the megaphone I posted to Facebook here.)
I was very moved by the sight of Ethan the Encourager. I asked his mother what made him pick that word, and she said he told her he just wanted to share some positivity.
I thought about Ethan the Encourager the rest of the day. I thought about how we, as adults, are sometimes too quick to write off the younger generation and are wrongfully skeptical of entrusting them with our futures.
I found the actions of Ethan the Encourager to be, well…encouraging. I am certain we are all going to be just fine when young people who think like him are put in charge.
He possesses an important trait common to all good teammates—the courage to encourage.
It’s easy to remain in our comfort zones, play it safe, and just focus on ourselves. But as Ethan the Encourager demonstrates, there are occasions when we need to show others how much we care by risking the ridicule of doing something out of the ordinary, like hanging a sign around our neck while barking positivity into a megaphone.
When I returned to school later that day to pick up my daughters, I noticed Ethan the Encourager was still at it. He was handing out homemade cards with encouraging statements printed on them to the other students as they exited the school.
I didn’t know it was possible, but this somehow seemed to make my heart smile even bigger.
I hope you will steal a page from the playbook of Ethan the Encourager and share some positivity with your teammates today.
I assure you, it will be worth it. And it will make a positive difference.
As always, remember: Good teammates care. Good teammates share. Good teammates listen. Go be a good teammate…and an encourager.
