He insisted that we do as well as possible in school. That usually meant As, though if he was persuaded that we were doing our best in a subject that was difficult for us, he would tolerate a B. He never told us what to do with our lives. He just taught us that we could do anything we wanted if we got an education, set our minds to it, and did our best. I learned to believe that with hard work, you could be the best. That’s optimism.
