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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
You know those student-teacher friendships depicted in movies or books? The ones with a quirky, loveable professor and an at-first reluctant student whose confidence blooms under the instructor’s compassionate guidance?
Maybe you had one yourself. Maybe you yearned for one. But Mitch Albom actually experienced that very type of relationship with his university professor, Morrie Schwartz.
As one might expect, when Albom first met Morrie, he was reluctant to open up. But from the start, he knew something was different – this wasn’t going to be a typical, distanced student-teacher relationship. Morrie was the first instructor to ask Albom whether he preferred Mitch or Mitchell. When Albom responded that his friends called him Mitch, Morrie answered that that was what he would call him too. And, the professor said, he hoped to one day be considered Albom’s friend himself.
Morrie taught classes in sociology, psychology, and the study of human relations. Albom took them all. He hadn’t realized the field of study existed before he took Morrie’s courses.
Albom graduated high school a year early, so he was younger than almost every student on campus. Granted, it was only a year difference, but remember how much older the kids in higher grades felt throughout school?
Albom dealt with his insecurity and discomfort at being younger by acting a little edgy, a little hard. Morrie was the one to draw him out of himself while simultaneously building up his self-confidence.
The duo met up nearly every Tuesday – sometimes just to eat together, sometimes to walk, and always to talk philosophy and life. At Morrie’s encouragement, Albom wrote an honors thesis, something he hadn’t even considered himself capable of.
When Albom graduated, he proudly introduced his parents to Morrie, who he’d taken to calling Coach, because that’s what he was – a bit of a life coach, before such a thing had become a popular profession. Albom felt nervous yet excited to be graduating, to be joining the real world. He felt full of potential. And when Morrie told him to stay in touch, he had no doubt that he would.
We all know where this is going, don’t we?
Tuesdays with Morrie (1997) chronicles an important relationship in Mitch Albom’s life – the one between himself and his old college professor, Morrie. As they reconnect during the professor’s final months of life, they discuss everything from greed and forgiveness to death and a meaningful life.
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Start your free trialBlink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma