You’re about to interact with a stranger for the first time.

It could be someone you’re unlikely to ever see again. It could be a new acquaintance through a friend, or a new coworker. Either scenario is fine.

Will you think to leave a good impression? What kind of person will you be remembered as?

Is that important to you?

Two days ago, a colleague died in a car accident. In over three years at my school, I had exactly one interaction with this person.

He spied me through my supervisor’s office window as he walked back to his classroom. “This guy’s the best!” He shouted to my boss.

Turns out his son attended the high school at which I previously worked, and since his kid was in the orchestra, he saw a lot of my back (and heard my band, too).

“Everything! And GRADUATION!” He was in such a hurry to compliment me that my accolades came out in a quick jumble. He might have even mentioned graduation twice, which is funny to me, because it’s the least exciting part of being a band director. If you think it sucks to hear “Pomp and Circumstance” 50 times, try preparing your kids to play it as if they were training for a marathon.

I told this story to my students today as a building of nearly 2,000 individuals grieved. As I portrayed his exuberance and his kindness, the kids who knew him softly smiled. Here was - if we are talking about how cynicism runs rampant in US public high schools - the person with the antithetical attitude. “Be who you needed when you were younger.” We needed teachers who believed in humans, like this person did. And let them know he believed in them, like this person did.

My principal told a similar story where this teacher, moments before he had to face an auditorium of parents as the face of the school, reassured him that he was kind, funny, and well liked. “I’ve got the tough job - I’ve got to convince a room full of 9th grade parents that their kids are safe with all these bandsaws in my room!” (He was the technology education teacher)

Imagine you have just one interaction with a person, ever. You don’t know that it is to be the only one - that it shouldn’t be - but it is.

It will leave a mark.

What will you do?