This is not a poem.
This is my dedication to a man who touched my soul and gave me the gift of the most valuable knowlege I have ever gained in school.
I do not know how to explain Mr. Fowler in a paragraph and I feel as though any representation of him in just one small paragraph would be inadequate. However I will do my best to share with you how he impacted my life my ninth grade year. Ninth grade is a major transition year for everyone. New people, new school, and still a little bit of that middle school juvenescence. I was no exception to such awkwardness (as much as I'd like to believe I was) and Mr. Fowler inspired me even on the first day. He had a passion for biology and even more than that he had a passion for dispensing his knowledge (as well as his own meandering thoughts) to his students. He expressed his love for his work to us often; mostly just sprinkling it over his enthusiasm for a lab or whatever we were doing that day. I may not have had an ideally left-brain thought process as you would wish for an honor biology student and yes I did struggle but Mr. Fowler would not have ever left me behind. However he did not only touch my life academically. For three weeks at the beginning of my second semester in high school I was absent due to depression, cutting, and bulimia. My mind was at war with me and I told my parents I needed help. They checked me into a rehabilitation center for the next three weeks. While out of school North Springs was not easy to get in touch with. In fact they didn't even answer my mothers calls to get my work until I was finishing the program and coming into school the next day. Due to my school's lack of organization and incompetence I was three weeks behind and kept falling further and further. I was supposed to be put on a plan by my school to make my recovery less stressful and to help me catch up. That did not happen either. My school didn't even count my absences excused despite the hospital notes… Two months passed and I was even more behind and growing more fearful that I would have to repeat second semester until I went to Coach Cushman and Mr. Fowler. Mr. Fowler offered me support and I will never ever forget how kind he was too me. He told me we all have health problems but that doesn't mean we can't move forward it just takes a little confidence and work. He let me come talk to me whenever and gave me passes to stay after class. He has a beautiful mind and a caring heart, and although it was severely hard for me to reach the level of understanding of the material that I had missed not only in biology but in every other subject I passed. I cannot express my gratitude towards him for I may not be a tenth grader this year without his help and patience. My condolences go to his family as well as the family he has with the North Springs staff. I would also like to say that though Mr. Fowler may not be with us in a physical realm he is still here with us in spirit and one of the many lessons I believe should be taken away from his time with us is that you should love your work. If you do not live for what you do, you are simply doing the wrong thing.