Valentine\u2019s\u00a0Day. It is\u00a0a\u00a0day dedicated to telling the people in your life how much you care about them. For some, a day\u00a0to celebrate\u00a0strong connections. For others, a magnifier of loneliness. Even with our strong ethic of care\u00a0at\u00a0Fort Hays State University, I sometimes worry about missed opportunities to invest in one another\u00a0every day, not just on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am reminded of a story that writer David Vitt, the author of the Teachable Heart<\/em>, once shared about a daddy-daughter date on Valentine\u2019s Day. He and his young daughter went to a nice restaurant. After several minutes of lively conversation, she became silent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She had noticed an elderly man sitting alone. It made her both sad and curious. She wondered if he was waiting on someone.\u00a0Then,\u00a0he was served his meal\u00a0and remained alone. David tried to re-engage his daughter in conversation,\u00a0but she\u00a0stayed\u00a0focused on this man eating alone on Valentine\u2019s\u00a0Day. She asked, \u201cDad,\u00a0we\u2019ve got to\u00a0do\u00a0something for him; can we buy\u00a0his dinner?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As David witnessed his daughter\u2019s concern, he took the opportunity to embrace the moment and go deeper. He responded, \u201csomething tells me he has enough money to buy his meal; what do you think his greater need might be?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n She replied, \u201cDad, he\u2019s lonely. I can just tell; I think he needs company.\u201d So, on their Valentine\u2019s date, they invited the elderly gentleman to join their table. It took some coaxing, but he eventually agreed to share a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the next 30 minutes, dad sat and watched as this total stranger and his daughter interacted like they were good friends. They learned his name, that he was 85 years old, and that this was his first Valentine\u2019s Day without his wife of 62 years. He had buried her a few months before, and that restaurant had been \u201ctheir place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was so taken by both the simplicity of his story and the depth of how small acts of kindness can create authentic moments of connection and mattering. What I know about student success, and creating communities of care, is that those moments of mattering can make the difference between students who leave us and students who succeed. The same is true for colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know that a residence hall housekeeper who notices a student at their best and worst, and befriends that student, will likely be the first person they introduce to their family at commencement.\u00a0I\u00a0also\u00a0know that the dining hall worker who\u00a0remembers\u00a0the favorite foods of our students is one of\u00a0our\u00a0strongest\u00a0student\u00a0success tools.\u00a0I know\u00a0that\u00a0the professor\u00a0who\u00a0calls all her\u00a0students by\u00a0name and models\u00a0grace\u00a0is one of\u00a0our\u00a0most vital\u00a0assets.\u00a0And\u00a0I know that staff\u00a0who notice\u00a0a\u00a0student,\u00a0who, like the elderly gentleman in the story,\u00a0is\u00a0sitting alone and\u00a0makes\u00a0time to learn\u00a0that student\u2019s\u00a0story\u00a0is\u00a0demonstrating the\u00a0authentic sense of community\u00a0that\u00a0makes Tiger Nation so special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simply put, the more we multiply our efforts in investing\u00a0in\u00a0one another\u00a0and focusing\u00a0on a person\u2019s greatest\u00a0need,\u00a0the stronger\u00a0our community\u00a0becomes.\u00a0As a result, we\u00a0find joy, hope, connection and gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lesson\u00a0I carry from this daddy-daughter Valentine\u2019s\u00a0Day\u00a0date\u00a0is\u00a0that in the business of\u00a0our world, it is so important to notice, to be curious and to be brave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Valentine\u2019s\u00a0Day. It is\u00a0a\u00a0day dedicated to telling the people in your life how much you care about them. For some, a day\u00a0to celebrate\u00a0strong connections. For others,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71241,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71240\/revisions\/71241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}