StoryCorps Shorts: Lessons Learned

DR. LYNN WEAVER: As soon as we got into the school, the principal was calling the role.

He said, "Bill Weaver" and I said, "My name is William."

And he said, "Oh, you're a smart n-word."

I'd been in school maybe 30 minutes and he suspended me.

I don't remember a day that a teacher did not tell me that I didn't belong.

We'd have a test and they'd stand over me and then just snatch the paper out from under and say, "Time is up."

The first report card I got all Fs, including phys ed.

So I've gone from being a good student to starting to think, Well, maybe I don't belong.

Maybe I am dumb.

I was home one evening wondering what I'm going to do when there's a knock on the door, and it's my seventh grade science teacher from the black school, Mr. Hill.

He said, "You know, I understand that you're having some trouble."

And I said, "Yeah, Mr. Hill.

I think they're trying to run me away."

And he said, "What I need you to do is to come back to the junior high school after school, every day and Saturday mornings."

He said, "Can you do that?"

I said, "Yes sir."

And so every day waiting for me would be Mr. Hill with assorted other teachers -- the English teacher, the Math teacher -- and they tutored me.

And once I got past those Fs, I stopped doubting myself.

But learning became almost a spiteful activity to prove the teachers at the high school wrong.

And no matter what I did academically or athletically, I was never recognized at that school.

I never had a conversation with a counselor about going to college.

But during my senior year, I got a letter saying, "You've been awarded a scholarship."

So I ended up going to Howard University.

And 37 years after I left high school, I'm at my older brother's funeral, talking to Mr. Hill.

And I said, "You know, Mr. Hill, if I had not gotten that scholarship, I don't know what would have happened."

And I don't know how I got the scholarship because I never even applied for it.

And he said, "I know, because I filled in the application and sent it off for you."

So Mr. Hill stepped in and, I believe, saved my life.

And, at the time, I didn't realize how much I was being helped.

And that's the ignorance of youth and the wisdom of age when you look back on it you say, How did I get here?

How did I make it?

Because people helped you, whether you knew it or not.