My nephew, Dan, posted an intriguing short bit on Twitter a week ago. He wrote:

Probably my favorite UM classroom memory.

(He linked to the image I show below.)

In case you can’t read the chalkboard, it says: “DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE FUTURE. OR WORRY BUT KNOW THAT WORRYING IS AS EFFECTIVE AS SOLVING AN ALGEBRA PROBLEM BY CHEWING BUBBLE GUM! – FEEL GOOD – SHAKE IT SHAKE IT”

I wrote back, assuming his professor had written that for the class. His quick response at the time:

Actually! that was waiting for us in this room when we got there- my prof didn’t ever erase it though.

I wrote him last night to ask permission to post it here on my blog. He liked that idea. Then he wrote (in Twitter, so I’m piecing together several small notes) to explain it further:

…the boards that we have in those lecture halls have multiple layers so that the profs can keep writing out- so this means that often layers are kept hidden from view.

My prof started teaching one day, and got to the point in which he needed to shift the board, and then THAT was waiting for us…

The hall is used for multiple different classes, my guess to the cause of this message was from a random encouraging stranger, or a graduate assistant that just wanted to encourage and lighten the load of his students. Either way, I loved this.

Thank you, Dan, for the inspiration. It gives me hope in more than one way.

Today I’m grateful that Dan had a camera on his phone, and chose to use it.  I hope it encourages you, as well.