Foreword

In my work as a teacher of students with learning challenges, I have myself learned much
from my charges. For example, I learned that many such students remain trusting and
maintain the courage to keep on trying, receptive to a teacher’s efforts to help them meet
their challenges. Other students, however, become discouraged and lose their trust in both
their own competence and that of anyone else to assist them. I realized that if educators
did not do something to rebuild students’ confidence and give them the means to
overcome their difficulties, it mattered little if they learned literacy and numeracy skills
while nevertheless remaining disempowered persons adrift without hope.
Larry Anderson went through different kinds of challenges in his early life, and was close
to losing hope in himself and in his dreams. But he found the means to become
empowered, through reading, through dreaming, through the self-reflection writing
journals required. Thus, coming to understand the power of hope and belief in one’s
ability to take charge of one’s life, Larry has committed himself to communicating this
message.
Life is and always will be full of challenges, but the belief that they can be overcome
with persistence, determination, and courage is essential to one’s wellbeing. Each person
does have a contribution to make, and one’s mindset determines whether that
contribution is positive and effective or negligible and wasted. By reading stories such as
those in Inspiration to Live Your MAGIC!(TM), and recognizing the long and arduous
journeys that often must be taken to pursue one’s dream, personal reflection can inspire
one to strive to reach their potential and live the best life possible.
Judy Craig, Retired Teacher, Principal and Administrator