A Steak Dinner

The email read "sir, in about a year you will owe me a steak dinner." I smiled as I read the email because it was from one of my former "knucklehead" students. A "loss boy" so familiar with my office he knew where I put the things I could not fine. He is on my list of 17 students I did not reach. 17 kids, I could not unlock.

"Z" was a steering wheel kid. I grabbed that wheel many nights driving home wondering if I could change this kid. Over the past seven years, he would show up at school. Every visit coincided with a suspension from school. My heart would break every time he told me why he was suspended. Fighting, insubordination, and refusal to achieve would lead to additional educational support. I would listen and tell him what he could do to be the person I knew he could be.

I don't remember telling "Z" that I would buy him a steak dinner when he graduates from high school. Promising a steak dinner is something I have said at least a thousand times, but this time it mattered. He set a goal based on a promise.

I am not going to kid myself. He will need five credits next year and everyday he will need to keep his mouth shout and his brain open and it will be a challenge. There is hope that he will be the first high school male graduate in his family based on the words he shared with me last fall.

He started laughing as I "tuned student up." The little six year old teared up as I told him what we expect at our school. "Z" was grinning ear to ear. I was about ready to tune him up for old time sake.

I asked him why he was laughing. He smiled and shook his head from side to side and simply said "I want to tell that boy that he doesn't know that Mr. Oxley is his friend. I always knew that when you were mad at me it was because you cared and you would forgive me." "Z" knowing that we care is what gives me hope.

I will be praying for next 420 days until he graduates. I will cry when he reaches his goal of being a high school graduate knowing how many teachers saw through the mask of being a smart mouth and reached out to help him. His teachers deserve the credit. Teachers make a difference.

I will cry at his graduation because on this day my list goes from 17 to 16. No steak will taste better than the steak I hope to share with my friend "Z". Something, I did helped a loss boy find a path.

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