This is a follow-up to my previous essay about Nancy Nurenberg. Nancy was my senior prom date in 1961 at Mt. Lebanon High School. In the article, I mentioned that she and I were polar opposites.

Mt. Lebanon was the wealthiest community in Western Pennsylvania and the 19^th-best school system in the country. Nancy’s family lived in a part of Mt. Lebanon called Virginia Manor. Virginia Manor was the crème de crème part of the wealthiest part of Mt. Lebanon. Nancy was also the class valedictorian.

I lived in an average home in Mt. Lebanon and got average grades in schools, which meant, from my perspective, I was dumb and poor. It took me half my life to realize that I was not either. Looking back upon my journey down my yellow brick road, I have written about Brooks Oakford and Louie Palmer being mentors. I didn’t realize at the moment what Brooks had given me as a young kid. However, I do now. As for Louie, he asked me to be his teaching assistant during my senior year in college. I grasped that golden opportunity to prove myself.

Last week, I was sitting for a half-hour sauna session at the Southlake YMCA. Most sauna-lovers range in age from their 20s to 40s. When Kamala Harris is inaugurated as president on January 20, I’ll turn 82.

I sit sweating in a sauna for 30 minutes and then go into a whirlpool sauna for 10 minutes. Also, most of those in the sauna busy themselves on their cell phones. That is beyond me. So, I sit and ponder while sweating due to the temperature. It ranges around the low 180°.

While pondering the other day, it happened. I was thinking about my essay about going to the prom with Nancy. Nancy was a lovely gal. I used to walk her home from school. She was in my homeroom class at Mt. Lebanon. I don’t recall anyone else in the case, but I can tell you where she sat in homeroom. We went to our prom together, even though she was in love with a guy who graduated a year before and was in college.

You don’t have to be a psychologist to realize that Nancy impacted my life. Nancy was gifted with an exceptional IQ. She took advanced placement classes at Mt. Lebanon decades before many high schools started to use them for gifted students.

Nancy was a mentor for what I could accomplish in my life. It was obvious that valedictorians aren’t very common, especially in high schools like Mt. Lebanon. Nonetheless, admiring various talents that gifted people possess could encourage the rest of us. While Trump rattles on about being a very stable genius, pick someone who is honest and doesn’t need to boast about themselves.

After college, I went to graduate school and post-graduate studies overseas. Additionally, I went to McCormick Seminary for my doctorate. My class had less than 20 students; however, I graduated at the top of a class of less than two dozen students. However, McCormick didn’t have a valedictorian speech for my class. However, I was asked to speak to the 2004 graduating class while teaching at DeVry two decades ago.

In my address, I paraphrased Henry Ford. My version was, "You can believe you can, or you can believe you can't. Either way, you will be correct." I wanted the graduating class to grasp Ford’s mindset. I did so by using the example of two women: Helen Keller and Wilma Rudolph.

Keller was blind and graduated from Radcliffe College at the top of the class.

Wilma Rudolph started her life as a black kid in Clarksville, TN, in 1941. When she was four, she contracted pneumonia, scarlet fever, and polio. In the 1960 Rome Olympics, Rudolph won three gold medals in track and field. A polo victim became the fastest woman in the world.

Pick a mentor you respect and use that person as an example of what you wish to become.