Email from a Professor

When I emailed my former boss to let them know I had decided to leave my current job and move on to a new stage in my life, I received a reply right away.

Thank you so much for your wonderful email.
Your ambition will continue to be the greatest source of energy in your life. Let's make sure to hold onto it firmly.
I believe your greatest strength, Ryo, is your empathy.
Being able to feel, think, and act from the other person's perspective leads to being able to support them by standing closest to them. Please go forth and excel by utilizing that strength. I am rooting for you.

Could there be a more powerful message of support for me than this? It made me realize once again just how much power words hold.

This professor also works in a field involving support. For a support professional, delivering sincere words naturally to someone is a kind of skill. And the professor likely even considered how the words they sent would be received by me. Looking back now, I think the reason I decided five years ago to leave this professor's side and quit my university administrative job to pursue becoming a support professional myself was heavily influenced by this professor.

Words definitely remain in the heart.
Even when conveying the same information to someone, a support professional can control how they deliver it. I feel that the essence of support lies in delivering a message while also considering whether the other person is in a state to receive it and how they will perceive it. The phrase in the professor's email—'being able to feel, think, and act from the other person's perspective and support them by standing closest to them'—might just be an essential quality for a support professional.

In my actual work, there have been many times when I have struggled with how to take in what someone is saying and what words to use in response. Being 'correct' alone doesn't always get through, and a single change in phrasing can alter a person's expression and their subsequent actions. That is precisely why I feel that 'how to convey' and 'how the other person receives it' are challenges that a support professional must continue to face.

At the very least, the professor believes I possess those qualities. That, more than anything else, was a source of great encouragement for me right now.