Sometimes It Only Takes a Sixth Grader to Brighten Your Day

It has been a long week, I've been working harder than normal to get ahead so I can actually go out of town and enjoy a few days at the beach. Needless to say, I needed something to brighten my day and I got that today from a group of sixth graders!

I was asked to come and speak at St. Cloud Technical and Community College. They wanted me to share with 6th grade students from Kimball, Foley and other areas what my job is like and what they need to know about the radio business.

I wound up speaking to a couple of groups of girls about my experience, what they need to study in college and what they need to start thinking about now to be able to enjoy a career in radio. They had some great questions about the job. Towards the end they started asking about stars that I've met and I had a few stories to share.

It was at the end of our time in the first group and one of the young ladies asked if she could have my autograph.

I have to take a detour for a second and tell you that I do not consider myself a star in any way. I'm just a regular guy who happens to work in radio. I'm the same person when you meet me as I am when you listen to me on the air. Because of this mentality, I still am shocked when someone asks me for an autograph or gets nervous when they meet me. I constantly have to take myself back to when I met Sara Evans the first time and remember that feeling - being star struck. We had talked about this during the session.

I, of course, was honored to give her an autograph and flattered that she even asked. The next thing I know, I have every girl in the room lined up to have me sign their notebooks and then a few of the girls did something really cool.

One of the young ladies came over and gave me HER autograph. That brightened my day so much. Then I started getting more and more signatures to add to the stack. In the second group, the same thing happened and one of the young ladies brought up the large piece of art in the back of the picture that she had drawn while listening to the presentation.

Mariah, Corrine, Madison, Alexis, Caitlin, Casey, Cheyenne, Olivia and Sierra - THANK YOU for brightening my day! And I big thank you to the rest of the girls for being great listeners, asking awesome questions and putting up with me for 30 minutes today!

The point behind this story is that a little spark in your day can come from the most unexpected places - you just have to be willing to see it!