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high school

Joy

Man makes 'legendary' $20 bet in high school yearbook quote. It paid off 6 years later.

"I wasn’t nervous to write it. I knew in my heart of hearts that was how I felt.”

Cade Wessell predicted his marriage in his high school yearbook.

At Upworthy, we are always looking for stories that show the “best of humanity,” and a recent article published by PEOPLE does just that. It tells the story of a couple who were born for one another, and at least one of them knew it from the beginning.

Cade Wessell and Sarah Dill became friends on the first day of 6th grade and stayed close until they were seniors in high school, when they took things up a notch and began dating. A few weeks after their relationship took a romantic turn, Cade had to come up with something clever for his senior quote in the school yearbook.

Your senior quote can follow you throughout life, so he knew it had to be good.

"Some were trying to think of funny things to say. Others were attempting to be profound," Cade, 24, told PEOPLE. "But I sat there, isolated myself and thought, 'I’m going to do something legendary.'”


Cade’s “legendary” move? He called his shot and put money on it. "Twenty bucks, I marry Sarah Dill," he wrote. Sarah later learned about the bold prediction when a friend sent her a photo of the yearbook after it was published.

Six years later, Cade collected on that bet when the couple were married in Sarasota, Florida, at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium.

Sarah told PEOPLE that she was impressed that Cade knew they were meant for each other so early in their relationship. "It’s literally right out of a rom-com," Sarah, also 24, said. "Now, as we reflect, we realize senior quotes were due at the end of January, so we had only been dating for a few weeks when he submitted it. When you know, you know!"



Cade isn’t the only person to go viral for making a prediction in their senior quote that came true.

In 1993, Michael Lee, a senior at Mission Viejo High School in California, made an unlikely and super specific prediction in his quote that came true. He predicted that in 2016, the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series.

“Chicago Cubs. 2016 World Champions. You heard it here first,” he wrote in his senior quote.

Lo and behold, in 2016, the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series since 1908 when they defeated the Cleveland Indians (now the Guardians), 4 games to 3, clinching the title at home in Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The win was massive news for long-suffering Cubs fans who felt their team had been cursed for over 60 years.

Lee had been a lifelong Cubs fan and told Lids that he had a “vivid” dream when he was in the 3rd grade of the Cubs winning the World Series. The dream ended with the victory announced on the iconic red sign outside Wrigley Field with legendary Cubs announcer Harry Carrey proclaiming, “Cubs win!” on the radio.

“Everybody calls it a prediction, but it’s really not. It’s just something that I dreamt about when I was a kid and I just was having a little fun when I pulled out my quote thing for the yearbook,” he admitted.

Unfortunately, unlike Caden, Michael didn’t bet any money on his prediction.

Identity

High school girl’s response to ‘Ugly Girls’ poll inspires positive reaction

This brave high school student stood up to her school’s cyberbullies.

Lynelle Cantwell/Facebook.

Lynelle Cantwell had a response on her own Facebook page.

Lynelle Cantwell is in 12th grade at Holy Trinity High School in Torbay, Newfoundland and Labrador (that's Canada).

On Monday, she found out that she had been featured on another student's anonymous online poll entitled "Ugly Girls in Grade 12," along with several other classmates.


Cantwell responded via Facebook with her own message, which has already been shared more than 2,000 times and counting.

cyber bullying, bullies, kindness

The unkind poll.

Lynelle Cantwell/Facebook.

Take a look:

bullying, brave response, community support

“Just because we don’t look perfect on the outside does not mean we are ugly.” - Lynelle Cantwell.

Lynelle Cantwell/Facebook.

Since posting her brave response on Facebook, more people have come out to show support than people who voted in the first place.

Check out some of the responses:

appreciation, confidence, self esteem, love and support

Some responses to her post.

Lynelle Cantwell/Facebook.

The School District of Newfoundland and Labrador has announced that it will be looking into the incident further. For Cantwell, the positive outpouring of love and support vastly outweighs the initial cyberbullying and is raising her confidence in new ways.


This article originally appeared on 08.20.17

An influencer and MrBeast.

After YouTube phenomenon MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, 25, graduated high school in 2016, his mother made a deal with him. He could live in her house and go to college, or if he didn’t want to pursue higher education, he would have to move out and live on his own. So, he decided to go to college, although his heart wasn't in it.

The content creator, philanthropist, and founder of Feastables chocolate snack brand had just started making videos on YouTube as a teenager and had yet to hit the big time. So, he went to school while continuing his passion for creating YouTube videos.

However, college was not for MrBeast and he quickly dropped out. “I got to college and I couldn’t stand it, man. I used to sit in front of other classrooms and think, yo, I don’t know what the fu*k is going on,” he said, according to Essentially Sports. Instead, he put all his efforts into pursuing his dream of being a YouTube star. By the following year, he had earned over 1 million subscribers on the platform and was well on the way to being a success.


Last year, MrBeast reportedly made $82 million from his hundreds of millions of subscribers.

In an interesting twist to his story, MrBeast recently warned aspiring influencers and content creators to be careful about following his footsteps and giving up everything to pursue their dreams.

"It’s painful to see people quit their job/drop out of school to make content full time before they’re ready," Donaldson wrote on X on March14. "For every person like me that makes it, thousands don’t. Keep that in mind and be smart plz."

MrBeast’s tweet contradicts the inspiring advice successful people often give about following their dreams. Especially for someone so young who gave up a college education to pursue his. MrBeast is not advocating for people to follow the words of the great T.S. Eliot, who once said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” Or Nelson Mandela, who famously said, "There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

But MrBeast definitely knows the business he’s in, and it’s a lot different than it was when he first started out in 2016. The number of YouTubers has expanded exponentially over the past 8 years, and there are only so many eyeballs and sponsorships to go around.

Further, influencers now have to compete with artificial intelligence and TikTok is in danger of being shut down by the government.

"The chances of you quitting your job without a safety net and becoming a successful content creator are slim to none and anyone who does that is the exception, not the rule," Katya Varbanova, a brand marketing strategist and the CEO of Viral Marketing Stars, told Business Insider. She also added that a big part of MrBeast’s success was "being in the right place at the right time."

MrBeast made it big by working tirelessly to figure out the type of videos the YouTube algorithm and viewers wanted produced. Then, he scaled up his budgets and production quality to become a leader in the content creator industry. But one of the keys to his success was that he got in the game at the right time.

For those who may be discouraged by MrBeast’s thoughts on becoming an influencer in 2024, it doesn’t mean to stop following your dreams. It means to be like MrBeast and find the next big thing before everyone else, work hard to perfect it and shoot for the stars.

Canva

Teachers earn their own A's through this act of encouragement.

Thinking back, I'm sure we can all recall having a tough day at school.

Maybe you got a bad grade on a test or weren't picked for a team you desperately wanted to be on. Or maybe there was a day (or days) where you just didn't feel like your presence at school mattered.

While you may no longer be in school, feeling unimportant can absolutely trickle back from time to time. I happened to be experiencing some of those feelings myself when I stumbled upon an amazing video by Jamie McSparin, a teacher at Oak Park High School in Kansas City, Missouri.

McSparin recognized the students at her school go through tough times on occasion, and she wanted to do something to show them how important they are to their teachers.

So she gathered several other teachers at Oak Park together and asked them to pick one student and share why that student inspires them to come to work every day. On camera.

The teachers were a little apprehensive about doing it at first, but that was before they got these incredible reactions:

joy, kindness, teacher, student appreciation

A bright smile cultivated through a teacher's motivation.

Photo via Tyler McSparin/YouTube.

self esteem, education, investment, genius

Big smiles found when getting some good news from the teacher.

Photo via Tyler McSparin/YouTube.

happiness, effort, wisdom, education, positive

Some times it's surprising how much a little positive reinforcement takes someone.

Photo via Tyler McSparin/YouTube.

McSparin asked each teacher to record the experience. In order to catch the students off guard, the teachers looked up their schedules and momentarily pulled each student out of class.

"EVERY student we pulled from class thought they were in trouble," wrote McSparin in an email. Of course that's the natural reaction when a teacher takes you out of class, but once they realized what was going on, they were overcome with gratitude.

And the teachers didn't just choose overachievers. The students picked fell on a wide academic spectrum to show their abilities don't dictate their significance.

The initial goal of the "Oak Park Positivity Project" was to remind the teachers how much of an impact they have on their students, but it's obviously worked to bolster students' confidence as well.

school, insight, teaching, community

It's not rocket science that encouraging the future has value.

Photo via Tyler McSparin/YouTube.

Since the video launched, McSparin has received inspiring messages from educators across the country who are eager to bring the project into their schools.

And McSparin plans to keep the positivity going all year long. "Several students have approached me about things THEY want to do to keep it going," she said.

Everyone can have a tough day now and again, but movements like this prove there's always someone in your corner to gladly remind you how much you matter.

Check out the video project here:

This article originally appeared on 10.06.16