An Open Letter To Coach
Posted in Mike's Posts 5 comments
With the open content of these blogs, I wanted to follow up on my post from last week and send a letter I started years ago to a man who had a great impact on my life. Perhaps someone stumbles across this and knows him or he see's it. He was my high school wrestling coach at Blue Springs High School and I appreciate him very much. Thanks for listening.
Dear Coach
I just wanted to write you a letter, and express my appreciation for you. I can still remember when I was in your gym class in 10th grade, and you challenged me to wrestle for you. I am not sure if you know but my life was a real wreck before that point. I was living a grown up world at the age of 14. My mother didn’t really care where I was at, or what I was doing. In fact, she would offer to buy alcohol for me and my friends. I was hanging out with people in their early 20’s, and things were not pretty. I appreciate you stepping in and teaching me things in life that I would never have otherwise learned.
I have 2 sisters and one brother – of whom none completed more than the 9th grade, all struggle with substance abuse, and none hold steady jobs. I had the same chance to fail. In fact before coming to
I really believe that being involved with wrestling kept me off the streets, kept me away from any further substance abuse, and kept me focused. In fact the second semester of my sophomore year was the first time I had ever cared about grades. I missed a 4.0 by like 2%. Though I was not one of your top wrestlers of all time, I still learned a great deal, and count it a privilege to have learned under you. I use my wrestling skills still today as I work as a Youth Minister. In addition, I was the first to finish high school and college – in my whole family.
I have a wife of 17 years, and 3 kids. I dated my wife in high school. Micah, 13, is a future state champion, Denaia is 10, and Makenna is 4. She is the sweetest thing ever – they all enjoy our nightly ritual of wrestling! All kidding aside, I have a wonderful family, and a great life. Whether you know it or not, you had a significant part in it.
I guess what I am saying is THANKS! I appreciate your time you invested in my life, the care you gave, and everything you taught me..
Mike Johns
5 comments:
Mike, this made me tear up. What a wonderful reminder of the power of words, the unknown impact of our investment in others' lives.
Mike,
Why don't you send him the letter yourself - a little google search never hurt :)
Coach Berry: berryg7@hotmail.com
Thanks for the encouraging blog brother - hopefully I wasn't overstepping my bounds by tracking that down for you...
Have a great one! Megablessings!
Not to sound stalker-ish but I have searched him out and not been able to find the email address... you have good google-skills!
Thanks for finding it and I will make contact.
I just now saw this because it wasn't showing up on my phone browser before. Thanks so much for sharing this. Teachers hear a lot about what people think they're doing wrong, but for some reason most people are more hesitant to vocalize when a teacher has affected them in a positive way. We have a small joke that teachers are like camels because they can go a long, long time without any positive input but one word of thanks from a student will keep them going for months. Thanks for sharing!
Sounds like youth ministry Nick! or i guess ministry in general. Thanks for reading deep into it and finding the encouragement :)
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