Masonic Learning Center - Success Stories

The most important thing I have ever learned is that having a great education is the best thing you can get. This is true for a number of reasons. Having a good education gets you where you want to go in life, such as going to another country to do your job. Just think, you're so good at your job that you get the opportunity and privilege of going to a different country to work. That does not happen to everyone you meet.

Another reason why having a good education is important is because you will be able to support a family later in life. Supporting a family is very important, and you want to be able to do it right. Why would raising a family correctly be so important, you might ask? The reason is simple; when you raise a family properly you have nothing to be disappointed about. You know that your kids will be fine when it's time for them to go into the world, and that they will be happy. You will be able to wake up in the morning and know that you have made a difference in the world.

The last, but most important, reason why getting a good, if not great, education is the feeling of self-accomplishment. THe feeling of waking up in the morning and loving where you go and what you do for a living. Knowing that if someone has a problem that they can't solve, that you will be able to help them get through that problem, no matter what kind of problem it might be. Or having that overwhelming phenomenal feeling of knowing that you can do it, and that no one can tell you that you can't. Or the feeling you get after someone congratulates doing something good, and doing it well. You feel like nothing in the world will drag you down ever again. Or that same feeling you get when you bounce back from trouble and accomplish something you thought would never come.

If anyone knows about that, it would be me. You see, believe it or not, I was one of the people who were heading for trouble, but bounced back.

All my life, I had never been a good reader. I could never read properly, or with speed. I always dragged along in my reading classes. I was just plain not good at reading, and it revealed itself.

My mom got me into the Masonic Learning Center. I went there about three full years, twice a week, including one summer. I went to the Center to get help with reading and school work. Just by telling you that, I hope you see how important my parents, and now I, think having a good education really is.

I really want to bring your attention to the teachers at the Masonic Learning Center. The teachers do not get paid at all; they do it because they care about kids, and they, too, belive that getting a good education is important. My sixth grade language arts teacher commented to my Mom that "I can not believe how far Jack has come in these few months."

Then the big day came. It was Thursday, July 27, 2006, which was also my birthday. It was the summer between seventh and eighth grade. I was in the biggest haze I had ever been in. People we congratulating me, shaking my hand, taking my picture, saying goodbye, and waiving to me. I just kept moving towards the door. When I got there, I turned, waived to my tutor and the manager of the Center, and then walked out. As I stepped out onto the sidewalk of the busy city street in Bangor, my graduation form in one hand and free air in the other, while still in my haze, I looked off into deep space with the feeling of true, pure accomplishment, overwhelming disbelief, and just phenomenal feelings rushed through me like a train zooming through a tunnel and bursting out the other side. As I go through life, I will ahve that glorious feeling of ... I DID IT!

By: John "Jack" McAleer