&8220;You are the embodiment of the information you choose to accept and act upon. To change your circumstances you need to change your thinking and subsequent actions.&8221;

&8212;Adlin Sinclair

Nothing is more important in getting something accomplished than finding the inspiration to do so. Put another way, the hardest part of doing anything oftentimes is simply deciding to do it.

Certainly this is true with education; getting students motivated to learn must be a primary job for any educator.

Principal Vanassa Nason and school counselor Su Beard of Montevallo Middle School recently organized a very successful career day with the idea that if they can get students excited about becoming firemen, doctors, teachers and the like, they are more likely to be interested in gaining the skills needed to perform those jobs later in life.

What a great idea and by all accounts, career day at the school was a great success.

According to Catherine Legg, some 39 professionals, representing very diverse occupations, visited with the students and talked about their jobs. Each child had a chance to ask questions during a 20-minute visit. These business and community leaders also deserve our thanks for investing their time to make a difference in these student&8217;s lives.

Each of us more than likely could quickly call out the name of a person or two that had a dramatic impact on the direction of our life, our ultimate career choice. What would our life be like today had that person not chosen to make a difference in our life?

It&8217;s hard for me to imagine what my life would be like without the positive influence of so many caring people who took time to help me when they had no reason to do so.

Thankfully, Shelby County is filled with that sort of giving people.

Everyone has an interest, I would expect, in young people having the greatest opportunity to be successful members of our community someday; such would have to be in everyone&8217;s best interest.

But unfortunately, only some people choose to act on that idea.

Perhaps people like Principal Nason, Counselor Beard and the business people involved in career day can inspire the rest of us to make a difference, just as they did with they students at Montevallo Middle School.