Neil Pasricha went from being a shy kid to an author and public speaker. He has a teacher to thank

Neil Pasricha talks — a lot. 

The New York Times bestselling author is well-known for his popular Ted Talk, "How do you maximize your tiny, short life?"

On stage, he is confident. He's charismatic and empathetic. His voice is clear and steady, and he talks with his hands. But Pasricha wasn't always this way. 

He can remember being a young kid back in grade school in Oshawa, Ont. "I was very, very, very shy," he said.

Pasricha had no friends that he can really remember, played on no sports teams and participated in no school clubs. He had daily headaches a doctor eventually diagnosed as stress. 

"I was tiptoeing my way through the days," he said.

The summer after Grade 5, during which Pasricha had switched schools, he met a kid named Scott, who would become one of his best friends. That fall, the duo were in the same class and Pasricha walked in to a surprise familiar face. His Grade 6 teacher was Jim Olson — a "fun, energetic, dynamic teacher" from his previous school.

That was the year, Pasricha said, Mr. Olson began to "crack the hard, thick, nutty shell around me and help me open up into the person I was, I guess, eventually to become."

CBC Radio's Here and Now called Olson so Pasricha could thank him. The since-retired schoolteacher was delighted.

• You can listen to the moment the two reconnected in the player below:

Pasricha's opening up began when he was drawing cartoons in the corner of the portable with Scott.

Mr. Olson asked them what they planned to do with their creations. The boys said, "We were thinking, maybe we'll start a portable six press…. Like a school newspaper."

An enthusiastic Mr. Olson jumped on the idea. He kept the class open for them during lunch, he photocopied their creations and stapled them to hand out to their peers, and he even redecorated the room, renaming it the Riverview Cottage — a place fit for the pre-teens' creation.

It felt good to have someone believe in his potential, Pasricha said.

"The positive emotional residue of that was that I felt like I could do something," he said. Portable Six Press was Pasricha's first, but not his last, published work.

"The students, they move on from grade to grade and they move on in their lives," Olson said. "Unless you run into them in the grocery store, you really don't know where they've gone or what they've done."

• Is there someone in your life you'd like to say thank you to? Let the team at CBC Radio's Here and Now know and a producer may reach out to learn more

Olson invited Pasricha to call him Jim now, as a friend.

"I'd love to do that, Jim," Pasricha said, before admitting, "it does feel clunky coming out of my mouth, but I've got to get used to it."