SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Each week, a guest draws a card from NPR's Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. George Saunders has reached levels of acclaim and popularity that few writers achieve. He is the author of the bestselling "Lincoln In The Bardo," and he has a new book out, "Vigil." But he tells Wild Card host Rachel Martin that there were a lot of times where he couldn't see a path to success. He told her a story about a teacher that helped him find his way.
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RACHEL MARTIN: What's an experience you wish you could give every person?
GEORGE SAUNDERS: Be - I don't know why I'm saying being forgiven. That I think - you know, or accepted. In other words, having somebody - 'cause I've had so many people like this in my life - who took me just as I am and accepted me and loved me, and especially when I was young. And that - I mean, first and maybe most formatively when I was young. I had a high school - I was a really bad student. I didn't study at all, and the grades reflected it. And I didn't really - I wasn't really planning to go to college.
But I had this high school teacher, two of them - Joe and Sherry Lindbloom - who kind of saw something in me and were encouraging me to try to go to college. So as part of this process, Joe, who was a geology teacher, invited me to the - this Chicago citywide science fair. And - which I had nothing to do. I, you know, had no entry at all. So we go, and it's just amazing. Like, you know, these kids my age were, like - I don't know - building nuclear reactors, and, I mean, they were doing amazing things.
And I - we walked through there, and I was so - I really loved him and idolized him. And I was kind of feeling a little bit like, oh, God, look at - why is he with me? I'm such a - you know, I haven't done anything. These kids are years beyond me, you know? I haven't even tried. And the beautiful thing that he did for me is we spent that 2 or 3 hours together, and he never once in the slightest way intimated that I was less than those kids. We were just gone.
And what he did was he praised the individual, and he explained why this was a particularly good project. And he said to the kids what a great job they'd done. So he knew that I was internalizing all of this. And what he was really, I think, trying to show me was, you know, you've got some work to do. But he did that in the most loving, compassionate way with not a trace of shame about it. We had a great day, you know...
MARTIN: Yeah.
SAUNDERS: ...And went out to lunch, and I fully internalized that message, and he knew it, and he knew he didn't have to say a single thing about it. And then he got me into college after that, you know. So I - what I wish for is that everybody has somebody like that in their lives, you know, too.
MARTIN: Yeah.
SAUNDERS: 'Cause he could have crushed me with one thing, you know...
MARTIN: Yeah.
SAUNDERS: ...With one line about my recalcitrance or my laziness, but he never would go there, you know?
DETROW: You can watch the full conversation with George Saunders on YouTube, @nprwildcard. His book "Vigil" is out now. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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