On the morning of Friday, November 12, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) members gathered in the auditorium during MAP, excited to receive their Chick-fil-A and listen to their monthly speaker. In this case the speaker was someone to explain how to make your mark on the Midlo community. Grace Burke (11) opened the meeting by introducing the speaker, Sarah Nugent, a Midlothian High School alum. She began her lecture with an anecdote elaborating on how she made her mark.
She recalled a time recently where she was sitting in a doctor’s office talking with a nurse whose husband is Mr. Jenkins, a teacher and basketball coach at Midlothian High School. Nugent continued on to say that the nurse went on and on about how Mr. Jenkins still remembers her and the impact she had on the community. With that, she moved on to her first takeaway: Be the person today you would feel comfortable saying “Hi” to 5 years down the road.
“Let’s say you met someone at a grocery store that you recognize, and you could either do one of two things: have awkward eye contact, or could share a smile and a few words; which, spoiler alert, landed me the job I do now,” Nugent said.
Her second takeaway was that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% is how you react to it. Nugent continued to recount her journey of being rejected from her dream college, but then getting accepted into Virginia Tech where she excelled in her freshman year. Now she can’t imagine herself being anywhere else.
Her very last takeaway is to begin with an end in mind.
“I actually learned about this habit from my time in FBLA, I know that majority of you may think ‘Sarah, I already know what college I want to go to, I already know what I want to do in life, but how do I start?’ I always say to begin with the end in mind,” Nugent said.
At the end of the meeting, FBLA sponsor, Ms. Mullins, shared a few words about how Nugent is remembered for the mark she made on the community.
“I can not tell you how many faculty members came up to me and said, ‘You’re having Sarah Nugent? You’re having Sarah Nugent!’ That’s how you leave your mark,” Mullins said.
