TAMPA, Fla. — We often hear about how teachers can impact a group of students lives, but rarely do they keep in touch in the years following graduation.
Back in 2008, then 15-year-old Zhalarina Sanders met her JROTC instructor Eric Hess at Chamberlain High School. Hess is a retired Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant, who goes by the nickname “Gunny”.
“I always say I was like, kind of a chaotic kid. I wasn't bad. But someone, who like had difficulty focusing and like, following through and like having confidence in myself to do hard things. And Gunny, through what he was teaching in the program, changed all of that for me,” said Zhalarina.
“I found myself early on in my career, being very impressed at a young 15-year-old student who was very charismatic and very energetic and really eager to learn,” explained Gunny.
For the next two years, this teacher/student bond began to grow, especially after Zhalarina joined the drill team.
“I was then spending a lot of time with Gunny, as he was teaching me as a student. But then, I was also with him after school, learning from him. Me and maybe about 20 other cadets. And in that time, it was incredibly transformative for me, mostly personally transformative,” said Zhalarina.
She realized Gunny was a mentor to her.
“A bond started to form where it was like, I kind of wanted to talk to him all the time. And like, learn from him all the time. And you could just tell that he not only cared about what he was saying, but he cared about who he was saying it to,” Zhalarina
They stayed in touch through college and beyond. Zhalarina even invited Gunny to her performances.
“Look at this young lady who I knew is incredible. And here I am watching her now a few years later, do what she's passionate about. And she wrote this, and she's performing it. And it just continued to blossom from there,” said Gunny
Over the last year, Zhalarina’s mental well-being and musical career began to struggle. So, she leaned on her mentor once again.
“I went from being a full-time artist since I left college to now working somewhere, and it was like an identity thing. And so, it was a lot going on. And it led to high amounts of stress, which produced tension in my neck. And now I have bulging discs in my neck and I might have to have spinal surgery,” explained Zhalarina.
During that challenging time, Gunny knew how to help, leaning on his own role models as a young Marine.
“Just to be able to sit down with her and actually, you know, go through that, and for her to trust me and share those things with me. It was a very eye-opening experience. An incredible opportunity to spend time with her,” said Gunny
As part of the healing Zhalarina wanted to write a song about her journey and how Gunny had helped her. She even asked him to perform it with her.
“When she said you know, I would like you to do this. I was really blown away,” said Gunny.
So they began to collaborate on the song as he guided her through some life challenges.
“She wrote the lyrics. But I think they came from the conversations that we had multiple meetings prior to actually beginning to work on the song,” said Gunny.
And for the first time recently Gunny performed the song with her in Ybor City.
In the song Zhalarina shares her obstacles. Ultimately realizing it is OK to ask for help.
“Gunny is many things— he's been a mentor, he's been a friend, he's been a great teacher. And, he's been an example and a role model and a reminder of the kind of Gunny that I have in God,” explained Zhalarina.
And Gunny is just grateful to have had this positive effect on one of his students years later.
“You can impact somebody's life beyond 50 minutes, five days a week to where here we are 16 years later, she's you know, in her early 30's now, and I met her when she was 15. And we've been in each other's life ever since. And so she's every bit of impactful on me as I've ever been on her,” said Gunny.
If you’d like more information on Zhalarina’s music and performances, click here or here.
