Recently, a mate of mine has been putting up old embarrassing school photos on Facebook. It’s made me slightly nervous every time that I log into my account, fearing that there’ll be another photo of me with my crazy smile and owl-shaped glasses.

Seeing the photos has reminded me of a bloke I used to go to school with who was the class geek. Most people in our form ignored him, but some particular guys used to persistently take the mickey out of him - mostly because he was kinda obsessed with Disney characters, which didn’t go down too well in an all-boys school.

Adam (not his real name) bore the brunt of the bullies for 2 or 3 years, without too many people standing up for him, seeing as he was an easy target. After that, most of my fellow classmates were too concerned with getting girlfriends, passing GCSE’s and partying to bother Adam any more, but he still must have lived a fairly lonely life.

A year or two ago, I met somebody who knew Adam, and they told me an amazing story about him. Ever since he was a young boy, Adam had wanted to be a cartoonist. His seemingly geeky obsession was actually a real-life amazing talent that we just didn’t understand or recognize at the time. Since leaving school, Adam had not only worked with some of the best English animation teams, but was now a key designer on some of the most fantastic cartoon films, like ‘Cars’ and ‘Ratatouille’.

I was wondering what would happen if we had a school reunion… While most people (including the bullies) would probably have ordinary jobs, leading ordinary lives, Adam might arrive in a stretched limousine and tell everybody about the famous people he knew in Hollywood! What a way to turn the tables.

Adam recognised what his talent was, even though it didn’t make him popular or cool. He stuck with it, through all the disappointment and loneliness, and is now able to show his talent to the rest of the world! It reminds me of a saying by St Catherine of Siena, a 14th century Italian woman: ‘If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire!’

What talent might you like to share with the world? Have you tried praying for the courage, strength and ability to set the world on fire?!