For many high school seniors, graduating can be a bittersweet moment, packed with excitement but also with doubt. Aware of this, a high school principal went out of his way to give some long-lasting words of encouragement. Principal Jason Mutterer, of Mansfield Summit High School in Arlington, Texas, wrote a personalized handwritten letter to each of the 443 graduating students, motivating them and reminding them of why they are special ahead of a monumental time in their lives.
Mutterer gave the notes out to the seniors along with their diplomas at the school’s graduation ceremony. “He, at one point, goes to tears a little bit. I knew that was going to happen, then he started talking about personal letters and 443 of them and I was like dang,” Eduardo Estrada, one of the graduates, told NBC DFW. “I’m like there’s no way he just wrote 443 letters to every student in here.”
When sharing the reasoning behind this gesture, Mutterer said he once got an encouraging note, just like the ones he gave out. “I have a letter that I got from a teacher back when I was in high school and I still have that with me today,” he said. “I was supposed to be a fourth or fifth generation farmer. My government teacher just said that you can go to college and can succeed in college and I kept that because somebody saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself.”
Mutterer, who has worked at the school for 23 years, is a basketball coach turned principal. “He didn’t want everyone to see him as the principal; at the end of the day, he was a coach, a teacher,” says Andrea Lozada, another graduate. While Mutterer didn’t get to be a teacher to any of the seniors, he knew all of them well. The notes praised each student for individual achievements, addressed them by their nicknames, and wished them well in the schools each of the students are going to.
Also hoping to inspire them to pay it forward, each note included a $1 bill, meant to show how a small act of kindness can go a long way. While each of the $1 bills may seem “small and insignificant,” the $443 together can amount to a monthly car payment, a family’s electric bill, or new shoes.
“I have done a small random act of kindness by providing each of you a handwritten letter with a dollar 443 random acts of kindness can start a ripple of positive, impactful change,” Mutterer wrote on Facebook. “No act of kindness is too small, so take the Summit Love you developed at Summit [High School] to a world that desperately needs IT and needs YOU.”
The principal also addressed all graduates, reminding them to not forget where they came from, but also to look forward. “Graduation is simultaneously an ending point and a starting point. Today you experience both the ending and the beginning. You have walked in the shadow of others, such as your parents, grandparents, and siblings, but now, BUT NOW, it is time to step out of those shadows, so the world can experience the light each of you have to offer.”
Principal Jason Mutterer, of Mansfield Summit High School in Arlington, Texas, wrote a personalized letter to each of his 443 graduating students.
The notes praised each student for individual achievements and asked them to pay it forward to “start a ripple of positive, impactful change.”
Sources: Jason Mutterer on Facebook; Texas principal who wrote 443 graduates personal notes known for going the extra mile
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