10. Brian and Amy Knight- My youth pastor for three years and his wife. Regrettably, they left before we could get very close. He was a very nice guy and a great youth pastor who truly cared. She was also very nice and had a very funny and interesting sense of humor. My biggest memory with them was the missions trip to Tennessee. Most people that went on that trip remember it as a train wreck, but that was a time where I really got to know people in the youth group, and Brian and Amy. It was a very special time for me. I wish they could have stayed through my high school years as well.
9. Coach Balow- A man that I started out with an utter hatred for. My 8th grade basketball coach. He was the man who lambasted me in my first practice ever because I used my right hand for a layup on the right side. Every one was using their right hand at that time, but he chose me to attack, or I took it as an attack at the time. However, he is the reason that I can easily use my left now. That day I went home and practiced using my left, and I would practice it during lunch break, and I practiced it before basketball practice. Within a week I had it down so I could use my left fairly well. I promised myself I would become great at it just so I could prove to him I could do it. It was then that I realized he tricked me. THAT WAS EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS TRYING TO GET ME TO DO. After those first practices Coach Balow became one of my favorite coaches (although everyone else hated him). He would always single me out to show my weaknesses, but after every game he would single me out and congratulate me on my strengths. That, I will never forget.
8. Mr. Kjolhede- (Probably slaughtered that name). Coach K coached me two years in football and one and a half in basketball. He was another coach like Balow that had no problem laying in to me. I remember he ripped me out of a game in AYBT over the summer took me by the arm, looked me dead in the eye and said, "Murf. Are you even at the game? Quit thinking about the girls and rebound." Good ol Coach K, the guy who said I was either one of the best players he had coached, or asleep. One major moment that stuck out in my mind was when my team was in Iowa playing basketball and coach called a timeout. After giving us a thorough slashing about how badly we sucked, he took me aside after and said "Murf there are maybe two people on this team that can hang with these guys and you are one of them. So start playing like it." I'll never forget that summer. I don't think I have had a coach yell at me more than he did that summer, but he got so much more out of me than what I was giving. He was a great coach. Not a good predictor though. He told us one day, "Out of all my years of coaching basketball (which had to of been like 100) you guys are the second worst team out of all of them. 1 or 2 TOPS will make Varsity." Eight of us made varsity and we won the CMAC.
7. John Schlaack- He was one of the youth sponsors when I was in Junior high. I had talked to him MAYBE twice, until I wanted to go on the missions trip to Tennessee. One of the requirments was that we had to hand in a sheet of paper with answers to some questions on it and give it to one of the youth leaders. Well, I of course could not give it to my parents and I was still too scared of Brian, so John was my obvious choice. Because I was forced oout of my box I became friends with a truly amazing guy. John was a guy that was incredibly nice to me when I was so self-conscious because I was the youngest in the whole youth group. I eventually did get accepted to go to Tennessee, (I was the only junior higher) and the time that I had there was unforgettable. I frequently had talks with John about how life was going. My favorite memory at the Tennessee trip was when he asked me how we should relay a message to the kids. I was so suprised he would even care about my opinion, and when I gave it he said, "Wow Ben that is a great idea". May not seem like much, but to a self conscious junior higher it meant the world.
6. James Blasdell- Out of all the people on the list, this one is the most obscure. James is an assistant grocery manager at Kroger in Owosso. He was my main boss when I was promoted to grocery. He was by far the most suprising man I have probably ever met. 99% of the "lifers" (people who spend their whole lives working for a place like Kroger) hate their job and complain about how everyone hates them. James came into work everyday with such a joy. He loved working there. He told me, "This may not be the best job in the world, but if you don't try to love what you do than you are just gonna be an unhappy sourpuss." It was so odd to see someone who took such an interest in a job where every one else just counted down the days to vacation. When I tried to transfer to a different store James was the one who offered to tlak to the other store and let them know how good of a worker I was. My fondest memory with James was one of my first days in the grocery department. Someone from another department came and got me and told me that James had been looking for me for a while and was waiting in aisle one. So, I went to aisle one and there he was with a look that made me think I had just lost the store millions of dollars. He looked at me and said, "Ben do you see this?" I looked to where he was pointing and found a long row of neatly stocked items. "Yes" I replied. "This is what happens when you are amazing at your job" he says. I reply, "So let me get this straight. You look for me for fifteen minutes just so that you can brag about how awesome you are?" . he replys, "Oh yea"
5. Mrs. Stevens- Mrs. Stevens was my favorite high school teacher by FAR. She is my second favorite teacher of all time. The memories that I have with Mrs. Stevens are endless. Most of them include Jordan Hahn, Ryan Schafer, and Bryce Smith. She was a very fun teacher and an incredibly nice person. None of this of course does anything whatsoever for my Spanish skills, but which is better memories or spanish. I will answer this before my father gets a chance. Memories. I will pick out two of my favorite memories with Mrs. Stevens. The first happened my junior year of high school. In Spanish III class with Bryce and we get this bright idea to boycott all Spanish lessons. (Dad you may want to stop reading. Or keep on because then things will make more sense.) We got this bright idea to trap Mrs. Stevens at her desk. We barraccaded her in by placing desks, chairs, stools, and her platform at the opening of her desk and the wall. SHE got a bright idea to email mr. borgman (our football coach) and tell him that we were boycotting her class and she felt like her life was threatened. Ahhhh high school. Mr. Borgman threatened to have Bryce and I run the full three hours of practice. Bryce was freaking out. I of course could tell they were bluffing. Mrs. Stevens would never want me to get in trouble because I was (and I quote) "Her favorite Student. The second memory came from junior year also. Ryan, Jordan, and I had sat next to each other for three years in Spanish. Ryan then got a bright idea to start dating someone in the class and left us to sit next to her. Jordan and I felt so betrayed. So we got this bright idea. Throughout the whole class period we talked to everyone in the class (without alexis and Ryan figuring it out) and we convinced them all that five minutes before class ended we would all break out in song of Ryan and Alexis sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. It was a great plan, but we were missing one vital part. Mrs. Stevens. I took the difficult task of convincing her to join in. I of course succeeded and sure enough, while she was teaching, five minutes before class eneded Mrs. Stevens just stopped and the whole class broke out in song. It was beautiful. Oh, and this should be making more sense now dad.
4. Jason Schlaack- Jason was a guy that became a youth sponsor while I was in high school. He kind of filled the void that was left by Brian and was affectively left unfilled by ahem ahem James. It was not until in between frshman and sophmore year of high school that Jason and I became good palios though. I, after not speaking to him in like a year, asked him to do a Bible study with me. That summer was a summer that I grew tremendously spiritually and Jason was a big part of that. I very much looked forward to our meetings and was always encouraged by his determination to always be persevering. We studied Ephesians and for anyone who knows Ephesians and also knows 99% of the people at Graham church, they will understand when I say that it was interesting. But, Jason lead that Bible study with love and caring and not with anger or a holier-than-thou attitude. It was always very evident to me where his love was and that was with Christ. He is a great guy and a good friend. I cherish everything that I took from that summer.
3. Coach Mitch- Coach Mitch was my basketball coach junior and senior year of high school. He influenced me a whole lot through basketball. Through him I learned discipline, hard work, and leadership. I have so very many memories with Coach, but I will narrow it to two. The first came at a pre season tournament at Hope my senior year of high school. It was our first game and I can out a tad less than stellar. Ok I was sucking more wind than a fat kid chasing a candy bar in the wind. It was bad. Coach called a timeout and was laying into us. And I mean bad. Although it wasn't really "us" because about two seconds into the speech he looks at me hits me square in the chest and screams "Come on Murf. You are a Senior. Act like it!" I was of course ticked. Why single me out? I may be playing bad, but I am not the only one. Clearly I had forgotten about Balow's tactics. I walked back out onto the court thinking "Fine. If he wants to single me out, I will show him. I'm gonna have the best flipping game of my life and then he will be sorry." I may not have had the best game of my life, but it was pretty darn near it. Every time the ball went up I raced after it like it was the ticket to the prom with the smoking hot girl (of course I am thinking of you Ashley. Sheesh). After the game Coach came up to me and said, "Way to respond Murf. You stepped it up just like a senior should." It was then that I realized I had been had. That was what he wanted the whole time. Instead of sticking it to him I played right into his tricks. The second story comes from senior year as well. We were playing at Bath. We had previously beaten Bath in double overtime at home earliear in the season and that was their only loss. The gym was packed even at halftime of the JV game. Coach came up to me in the locker room before the game. I had been coming off the bench the past couple games and I was sick with bronchitis with a nice fever to top it off. Coach came up to me and said "So what do you think Murf? You being my sixth man tonight?" "No way Coach. I want to start." I will never forget the way he looked at me and said "That's what I love to hear. I don't know, but there is just something about playing sick". We lost. I didn;t play horrible though. In fact, the guy who was taking pictures that year came up to me after the game and said "You were our one bright spot tonight Murf." That was such a fun season. I will never forget all the things Coach taught me, even if he did use his tricksy tactics.
2. Anna Dippold- Anna was the lone bright spot for me in one of the toughest times of my life. I don't know why, but junior high was horrible for me. I was just a sad kid. And it was not because I didn;t have friends. I had awesome friends. I just liked being sad. I know what your thinking. This kid sounds suicidal. It is true though. I took pleasure out of being sad. PSYCHO. Anyway, while I went through this I am a sad poor boy stage Anna was the one who was there spiritually for me. I was an incredibly knew Christian and Anna was someone who helped me along. She gave me verses that had inspired her and comforted her. She was always there to listen when I needed to talk. It is weird the types of people that God sends into your life that have exactly the right personality that you need, and strengthen you in ways that only they could. Anna was one of those people for me. Back then I was totally in love with her, and boy am I happy that she did not feel the same way. God had someone else that was perfect for me in that way. However, I thank God for Anna and how he used her to help me in a very difficult time. Although, times do change a lot. Because if Anna does not hate me now she definitely should. And here is one of the best stories of all time. Last Christmas break I took Ashley to Asian Buffet. A delicious Asian restaurant. Well when we went there I noticed that they had a new policy. Any food you don't eat will be charged as leftovers. Being the cheapskate I am I instructed Ashley to take bare minimal and then just go up for seconds and thirds. Well, Anna and her family came in about halfway through are meal. I went up for what I believe was my thirds. Anna was getting her firsts. We met in the middle and I looked at her plate and she had a nice helping. Thinking of the new policy I worried for her financial situation. I thought to myself, "I must say something so that she does not lose money to this evil corporation." ALthough it instead came out as "WOW. That is a lot of food". Poor Anna.
1. Mr. Goniea (or however you spell it.)- Mr. G was another one of those people that God sent into my life because he was the perfect person to help me where I was. Mr. G was the very first person I ever told that I had asked for Christ's glorious gift. He is and always will be my favorite teacher of all time. Once again, most everyone else hated him, but I absolutely loved him. After he found out about struggles I was having in school and spiritually he would frequently ask me "Hey Ben how are you doing?". He gave praise when I needed praise and he challenged me when I desperately needed to be challenged. When most people saw me at the time it was kind of like they though just wait till he is out of this funk and then we will try and get a hold of him. Mr. G challenged me when I needed to be challenged most. It seems that the most influential people are the ones that can make you feel so horrible about yourself, but at the same time always make you feel good about yourself. They are the ones that you always know will be there for you no matter what. Mr. G was there for me when I needed someone the most. And THAT is why I will never forget him. He didn't just help me with school and sports, but he helped me spiritually.
P.S. It is 1 in the morning so this thing has so many grammatical and spelling errors. Do your best to ignore them as I have.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The Definition of Irony.
So in 2006 Brian Kelly leaves CMU for Cincinnati. Butch Jones replaces him. In 2009 Kelly leaves to go to Notre Dame. Who replaces him at Cincinnati? YOu guessed it. MR. Jones.
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