An Education

Sometimes the toughest lessons are learned outside the classroom

High school and our experiences there often leave lifelong memories. Or scars. Imagine navigating those formative and frequently frustrating years while bearing an extraordinary burden — illness, disability, poverty, homelessness, parental abandonment or death, for example. The graduating seniors featured herein have endured a lifetime’s worth of adversity in their 18 years. In spite of, or possibly partly because of these challenges, they have managed to shine.

MEET TOMORROW’S LEADERS.

He was sitting in class when he heard the announcement. “Tennis team tryouts will be held this week …”

At the time, Richard Thawng was not overly concerned about having never held a racket. He had studied the game on TV. He envisioned himself, small frame darting across the court — lunging, swinging, smashing — his spiky jet-black hair restrained by one of those cool terrycloth headbands.

“And, I thought it might help me get into college one day,” he says.

He had endured so many hardships in his young life — fleeing his birthplace, years of poverty and oppression, and culture shock among them — that tennis seemed a cinch. He convinced a friend to join him. They did not have rackets, so they watched videos.

On tryout day, Coach Bob Williams stuck the boys on the farthest court to minimize “the risk of sprayed balls.”

Williams recalls them “banging, swatting, generally running around the court.”

But what grabbed Coach’s attention most was their “abundance of energy.”

It was summer, Williams recalls, “and as the veterans began to lumber in for water and shade, Richard and his partner doggedly continued hitting balls in the general direction of each other. They seemed to be swift on their feet, and they certainly had the drive.”

Richard laughs at the memory of the day. “I lied and told Coach I had played before because I wanted him to give me a chance. Everything I hit just flew, crazily.”

Williams remembers that the boys struggled with English.

“I peppered them with questions and learned they were Burmese refugees. Then Richard turned a question on me

‘What must I do to have a spot on the team?’ My heart swelled …”

Williams knew what he had to do — Cutting the unskilled was part of the job. But he found himself giving them another week to practice.

“What was I thinking? I knew I was