LifeStory | Ara

Ara Peters | “What Teacher or Mentor Meant the Most to You?”

“Sister Poverello was my favorite teacher. She was the drama coach and my English teacher. And she taught us, she taught poetry. And I have at least 20 poems in my head because we all had to memorize a poem every week. But she really, first of all, she gave me a lot of, she made me feel confident. She, you know, we would get in front of the class and stand up and say these poems we had. But she gave me a real appreciation. I will always think about her. I will never forget her. I know all those poems. I still know them, you know. And then she introduced me to drama and I loved it. Sister Poverello. I wonder if she's alive. Probably not.”

What was she making you memorize? Like Shakespeare's sonnets or like Emily Dickinson?

“Robert Frost. She taught us a poem the first day of school. We memorized it. And if we could recite it, you didn't have to have your homework that day. “I meant to do my work today, but Brown Bird sang in the apple tree, and a butterfly flitted across the fields, and all the leaves were calling me, and the winds were sighing over the lamb, tossing the grasses to and fro, and a rainbow held out its shining hand. So what could I do but laugh and go?” So if you could stand up and say that, you got excused. You don't do it every day, but you could use it. You could pull it out of your back pocket if you had to, you know, if you didn't do something you were supposed to. So she had a huge effect on me.”

All these years later, it's still imprinted on your brain.

“I know. I have at least ten of them. Yeah, lots of, you know, lots of good stuff.”

www.trylifestory.com