The heartwarming tale about a son and his mother's new boyfriend.
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FunTranscript
00:00 My lovely mother started dating.
00:02 I remember coming home from a basketball practice in 10th grade.
00:05 And when I opened up the door, right there in the living room was this guy.
00:09 His name was Mike.
00:11 Mike was my mom's new friend.
00:14 As her oldest kid, I thought I was the golden child.
00:17 Why would she need another man?
00:19 I'm here, mom.
00:20 All right?
00:21 And I remember Mike standing up.
00:23 He comes up to me.
00:24 He said, "Hey, your mom's told me so much about you."
00:28 Now I'm looking at Mike and I say, "She ain't tell me anything about you."
00:33 And so like any other boyfriend that she had, my goal was trying to make his life miserable
00:38 so that they realize that this can't work.
00:42 But instead of him giving in, he moved in.
00:45 And now he was trying to be my dad, a friend, a mentor, someone on my side, and I didn't
00:53 let him.
00:54 He would actually show up to my basketball games, which is weird because most of the
00:57 time, none of my family members or mom could come to my basketball game.
01:01 My mom worked two jobs.
01:02 It was just something.
01:03 But he would show up to every game.
01:05 When he first started doing that, I would still take the bus home when other kids would
01:09 go home with their parents because I didn't want to go home with him.
01:13 He showed up to my away games and I didn't play a lot.
01:17 My position on the basketball team was water guard.
01:21 So at the end of the bench, night next to the water, and he would show up and he would
01:27 always bring a camera.
01:29 Mike worked in our small town in his factory where most people work.
01:33 But Mike's dream job was to be a photographer, not just a photographer, but a photographer
01:39 for the Dallas Cowboys.
01:41 But instead of taking a picture of the Dallas Cowboys, he had to take pictures of me.
01:46 And he would take pictures of me even though I didn't ask him to be there.
01:50 And after every game, he would print me pictures of the little time I played basketball.
01:55 And it was at that point where I started letting him into my life.
02:00 Now fast forwarding to when I had my ACT my junior year.
02:04 One of those days on my basketball games, we were driving back like every other away
02:08 game, long Texas road with long conversation.
02:12 And I remember being a brat.
02:14 I remember being a brat to him.
02:16 And I remember looking at his camera and saying, "Why do you care about this camera?
02:21 It's not your real job."
02:23 And instead of getting mad at me, Michael was very patient.
02:27 Michael pulled over on the side of the highway and he looked at me.
02:30 Everything in that truck made noise but the horn.
02:34 And he parked the truck and he looked at me and he said, "Son, I know you're upset about
02:39 that ACT score, but I want you to understand something.
02:43 It's not about what you know.
02:46 It is about what you do.
02:49 It's not about how much intelligence you have.
02:52 It is about how much impact you make.
02:55 What are you going to do about it?"
02:57 And it meant so much to me.
02:59 I remember going into my senior year writing all the things I wanted to do.
03:03 I wanted to get my first all-A report card.
03:05 I wanted to go to college.
03:06 None of my parents went to college.
03:07 I had no idea what that process looked like.
03:10 I wrote down all the things I wanted to do and I became obsessed with that list.
03:14 And my last semester of my senior year, I got my first all-A report card.
03:18 I went out to college.
03:19 I ended up graduating with honors in the front of my class and graduated in four years.
03:25 But honestly, my greatest achievement is getting that college degree.
03:29 Not only was getting the college degree, but it's because seeing my mother get her college
03:34 degree.
03:36 From there, my brother graduated from Midwestern State and he ended up getting his degree as
03:41 well.
03:43 He ended up being a photographer for the Dallas Cowboys.
03:55 What's amazing about this picture and the times that I saw Michael before any of my
03:59 accomplishments, this was the first man I've seen, woman, achieve his dreams.
04:03 And it was so amazing to see that people can actually achieve their dreams.
04:08 The reason why you don't see Mike in any of our graduation photos, it's not because he
04:14 was taking a photo.
04:15 It was because at a young age of 47 years old when I was a sophomore in college, I get
04:21 a call from my mom that Mike is in the hospital and he passed away.
04:28 And that is when I realized all the things I achieved was based off of the motivation
04:32 of time and that time I had with Michael.
04:36 And it wouldn't be without that moment in my life that I had to go that low to realize
04:41 how sweet time was.
04:44 Michael was my friend, my mentor, and the person I saw turn a dream into reality.
04:53 If Mike was alive today, I would tell him how much of a difference he made in my life.
04:58 One of the biggest lessons Mike taught me was that we can all achieve our dreams, regardless
05:03 of gender, race, age, socioeconomic status, we can actually become the person we want
05:09 to be.
05:10 Growing up and seeing someone like Mike actually go after their dreams really gave me the confidence
05:14 to believe in Mike.
05:16 If you have a Mike in your life that has helped you get to where you are, share them this
05:20 story, send them a text and tell them how much you appreciate them.
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