It was fall when she stood over my desk with an exasperated face. “You cannot think of one sentence to make out of those words?” My second-grade teacher had written words across the giant chalkboard. My mind had gone blank.

I was near tears as I shook my head. Language, English and reading were never an issue for me. To have a moment of sincere struggle pointed out mortified me. There was no apology to her voice as she curtly told me to get it done.

Somehow, I managed to keep tears from falling, created a sentence and carried it to her desk. When I am under a writing deadline today, I don’t panic, and I don’t cry. I just get something on the page. Thank you, Mrs. Lawrence, for teaching me that sometimes — no matter how shy, uncomfortable or embarrassed you are — you must get the job done.

Chapter 2

There was another fall in a junior honors English class. I was accustomed to getting good grades. When the teacher announced a pop vocabulary quiz, panic shot through me. I had forgotten to study.

I wrote a couple of definitions on the upper corner of my paper. I wasn’t very smart about hiding my dishonesty. Thankfully, my career of dishonest gain was short-lived.

There were more tears and a firm but loving lecture. Thank you, Mrs. Duke, for giving me a deserved “zero,” for believing in me again, and for the lesson that there is never a shortcut for gaining knowledge.

Chapter 3

I once received a speeding ticket — wait, I’ve learned not to lie. Maybe it was two speeding tickets and a couple of warnings. Over the past 10 years, I’ve been careful about my driving speed.

The point of this rap sheet is that society didn’t fail to teach me that the world doesn’t revolve around me. When I grew up, no one worried about offending someone. We were offended all the time because we were, most often, offenders! Mrs. Lawrence didn’t add, “Do you need a moment? Do you need to go to your safe place, hug a unicorn or have a non-dairy-non-GMO-organic snack?”

Even then, I knew that sometimes, you must pull up your blue-knit tights and keep moving. In life, I’ve had some days where the page was blank. I’ve had to rely on … no one else to do what I committed to do.

Chapter 4

Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman, 24, living at home and not sure what he wants to do. He doesn’t want to work a regular 9-to-5 job. He’d prefer working a few hours a day, traveling and absolutely loving his job so it wouldn’t feel like work.

Currently, he has a college degree but no real job. I’m certain he’s had help along the way painting a glittery life that looks like an Instagram reel. But it has been a true disservice to him.

I wanted to sit him down at a wooden desk without any bottled beverage to coddle. I wanted him to make a sentence out of these words: responsibility, tenacity, gratitude, dependability, work ethic, perseverance, sweat, disappointment and humility.

But he would get offended and tell me that I’m mean. I suppose I’m joining the ranks of Mrs. Lawrence and Mrs. Duke, and I praise God for that!

McClain writes from Greenwood, Ind.