Twelve years ago an assignment for a fourth-year French class turned into a quest around the world to write a book in an attempt to answer some of life’s questions for Wenatchee High School French teacher Jon Magnus, whose now finished book, S.H.I.N.E.: Life Lessons Revealed, comes out on May 22.

The assignment Magnus gave his class was to write a two-page paper about a person in their life who inspired them to be a better person, thinking the most difficult part of the assignment would be the fact it had to be written in French. He soon discovered that most of his students could not up with a single name.

“Between that time and the end of the year we had a lot of discussion about who these people are, how we identify them, and why it is important to have them. Not to copy them, because we don’t want to copy positive role models, but to be inspired by them to be best at being yourself,” Magnus said.

That summer Magnus was visiting a friend in France, Jacques Antoine, famous French television producer, writer, and Magnus’s own personal role model. “We were talking about working in education and I was explaining to him how so many of the kids are really struggling to find who they are and discover themselves,” said Magnus. “ I felt a little frustrated just being able to work with 120 kids to 140 kids a year.”

Antoine then asked Magnus how he could change that and Magnus told him the idea he had. “I’ve always been really fascinated by people who are exceptional, people who go above and beyond what’s required. People who face great tragedy and instead of letting the tragedy destroy their lives, they turn that around and make it something really positive.”

He wanted to make of list of truly inspirational people and ask them some of life’s big questions, things like how you define success, analyze their answers, and see what all those extraordinary people had in common. That is what he did.

He traveled 60,000 miles to conduct interviews all over the world, listening to the life stories and wisdom of those who inspired him.

“It just took on a life of its own,” said Magnus, adding the book is full of stories to prove this point.

One of his favorites is how he became friends with a couple on a train to Budapest, who invited him to dinner with one of their friends. This friend picked them up in the U.S. Embassy limousine, and after some small talk, he discovered she was the personal assistant of Nancy Brinker, former U.S. ambassador to Hungary and founder of the biggest private breast cancer foundation in the world, Susan G. Komen for the Cure. He interviewed her in her kitchen a month later.

“It was an amazing journey for me,” Magnus said.

He will be having a book signing and presentation at 5 p.m. on May 22 at Pybus Market.