Over the past few months you have gone through many BIG changes in your life. Sometimes change is little. But sometimes change is big. Sometimes people realize that the road they are on requires a major turnaround. Let’s watch a video that shows a big change in one teen’s life.
Share the following video with your students [2:27]:
Optimistic Outlook Guides Naperville Teen’s Life
After your class has finished watching the video, discuss the following questions together:
- What happened three years ago to change Juan’s life? (After an attempted kidnapping and the death of his father, Juan and his family moved to the United States. Juan was devastated, but because he survived he felt he had to be optimistic)
- How did Juan deal with this change? (He learned to speak English in six months, he understood the language enough to take college courses in high school, volunteers, and is the author of a book encouraging teens to be optimistic in life.)
- A definition of optimistic is “feeling hope for the future.” How do you see Juan’s philosophy of improving people’s lives in contrast to his life in Venezuela? (He could have been afraid or angry. Instead he sees improving peoples’ lives as his greatest joy and meaning in life. He puts others first.)
- Based on what we saw here, what can we learn about putting someone else first? (Having a positive impact on other people is what drives Juan—even to writing and publishing a book for other teens about having an optimistic future.)
It is a beautiful thing to see such a dramatic change in someone’s life. But guess what? A man who lived a long time ago met Someone who completely turned his life upside down—heart, mind, and soul. Let’s find out how one amazing meeting had the power to transform everything.
