Daily writing prompt
What was the best compliment you’ve received?
I can remember several compliments that have stayed with me, not because they were flattering, but because they landed at exactly the right moment in life.
Years ago, when I was in the Air Force, I had my first serious girlfriend. We dated for close to a year and a half, and during that time I became very close to her family. In many ways, they gave me a sense of stability that I badly needed while I was away from home.
She realized before I did that our lives were headed in different directions, and even though we still cared deeply about each other, she felt a clean break was necessary.
We attended the same church, and one day after the breakup, her mother found me sitting quietly in the choir room, probably looking about as cheerful as a rain-soaked puppy. She came over, put her hand on my shoulder, and said, “Doug, everything I ever wanted in a son-in-law, I found in you.”
At that moment, those words meant more than she probably realized. When the relationship ended, I didn’t just lose a girlfriend—I lost a family that had become very important to me. Her words told me that even in heartbreak, I had not failed as a person.
Another compliment came years later, during the 2016 Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. My mother was in the fight of her life at the time, and before the walk she sent me a note along with a token: a lace-edged handkerchief she had carried when she married my father.
In the note, she wrote that in the Middle Ages, ladies gave their knights tokens to remind them what they were fighting for. Then she said I was her knight, and that I was fighting for her.
That one still reaches me all these years later. The note has been lost somewhere to time, but the handkerchief remains tucked safely away. It’s one of those objects that carries more meaning than its size would suggest.
And then there are the compliments that come through teaching.
In nine years in the classroom, I’ve had students tell me I’m their favorite teacher, which is always kind to hear. But the ones that linger are often quieter: the student who emails after moving away just to say they still remember my class, the former student who stops by to visit, or the senior this year who told me that her three favorite books she has read in school all came from my classroom.
Those comments mean more than simple praise. My greatest hope as a teacher is that I’m making some kind of lasting difference. So when students say things like that, it feels less like a compliment and more like confirmation that maybe, in some small way, I’m doing something right.
The best compliments are often the ones that tell you not just that you did well—but that who you are mattered to someone.
Copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.
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