Hit by Reality

I had a good senior year. I was named best football player at my school. I was all-conference and made third team all state. I thought I was on top of the world.

The prom was coming up in the spring and I wanted to get a good date. The head cheer-leader and me were kind of friends. Her dad was the Methodist minister in town. I ask her in early March if she would go to the prom with me, she said yes but the next day she called and told me her parents would not let her go with me.

Then the football thing. 3 small schools in our state said they would give me a football scholarship. Not Noter Dame, Oklahoma, Texas but little not important schools. They said will give you a scholarship we just need to check your overall character record and let you know. None of them ever contacted me again. I was bad, but not that bad, I thought. I was never in a fight, the teachers seem to like me, I never took hard drugs, I had never had any runin with the police.

I wanted to go to college and there was a community college in the nearby big city. But there was also a big time school that was very expensive. Jack said why don't you try the big time schhool. Jack went to work. He had spoken at the important school many times over the years and never charge them a fee. And he went to a big wheel at the school and said he wanted a favor. Let me go there on a tral basis. The school said alright but I would have to live with Jack and Alice and be a good citizen. It was really expensive so they got me a parttime job in the student union cafeteria busing tables. I was really thrilled that this school would let me try.

I guess I need to say who Jack and Alice are. Jack is the great uncle of my good friend Glenn. Alice is his wife. She is much younger than Jack and has some different ideas. She thinks boys and men are under a lot of presure. People expect them to always be able to handle things and never to bee too emotional. She thinks boys and men need help to.

Jack helped me with my assignments, Alice taught me how to hold by fork amd how to dress. They gave me the biggest bed room in their house with a TV and a pretty old desk. The kids at school were nice. They came from every state and had never heard of my little town. But they were still nice. I got by the first semester, but just barely. I did a little better the second semester. But in the early summer when they send you your grades I was afraid they would say you cannot come back. I waited everyday for the mail. One day a letter came from the school. I hate to admit it but my hands shook a little. The letter started out "Welcome back". I ran into the house and hugged Jack and Alice as hard as I could. I think I cried a little.

I had been hit hard many times in football. But being hit by reality was so much harder. I did not want to be a hero from nowhere. Now I thought with evey body helped me I might be just something. That night when I went to bed I tried to thank Jesus for what he had send me.