The Man

I believe that for every action there is a reaction. One action that happened to me was that the guy who I grew up listening to and believed in passed away on November 6, 2006. My grandfather was the man who I looked at as a father figure. He was the one that would not let me quit a sport and made sure that I was going to school. He was the type of man that watched over all his grandkids as if they were his on kids. He was an easygoing man who went by Daisy in the little area we live in.

When he passed away I thought that my world ended. I stopped going to school when I should, did not care about sports… I just did not care. After my junior year I got motivated a little bit because a division 1 college scouted me to go and play football for them. But then I was shot right back down when my senior season came around. The college said that they weren’t going to have me come and play for them.

So I was not feeling too sure of myself, but my grandpa was not one for letting me quit so I couldn’t give up on myself. We had a great season in football – we went undefeated in our pre-season the first in our school history. We went to the district championship game; we hosted the game for the second season in a row. I had both of our touchdowns in the contest, but we ended up losing by a touchdown. We had to stand there and watch the other team get the trophy awarded to them, for the second time in two years. It was another hard piece of cake to swallow because that was my team’s trophy.

After football I talked to some more colleges that were interested in me, but none of them felt right to me. Then I went down and talked to Wayne State’s coaches. Their philosophy was to push yourself as hard as you can and don’t quit. That just let me feel a little relief because it just made me feel at home. It reminded me of what my grandfather taught me at a young age.

Happily to say that after talking it over with my family and my football coach I signed with Wayne State on January 4, 2009. Just a little short of three years after his passing I was rewarded with a new chance of happiness. My grandfather taught me a lot of what makes a man. I didn’t think that I would become one.