Mr. Mosley Cindy Hong

"If you only learn one thing all year, I hope it isn't which side won the Civil War, or how Kennedy and Krushchev saved the world," a middle-aged man with peppered hair and round glasses candidly stated from the front of the room, "but that school is nothing but a small step in the journey of your life and undeserving of all your stress. Take things one at a time and you'll find that you will be successful if you give everything one-hundred percent." When I first heard my U.S. History teacher, Mr. Mosley, state these words with such force my freshman year, their meaning eluded me. I found them idealistic and impractical. But by the end of my two and a half years with him, I realized just how practical his advice is.

I first met Mr. Mosley as an easily intimidated freshman on Halloween 2001 -- my first day at Princeton High School. The nonchalance with which he helped me adjust startled me. "Even though you took World History at your other school, I'm sure you'll have no trouble acing the test on the Constitutional Convention in two days," he told me. The idea of taking a test with so little preparation chilled me. What if I didn't get the coveted "A?" I went home and...