The Art of Encouragement

Chapter 6The Art of Energetic Encouragement

I loved high school. As an adult, I hear so many people describe their high school experience as awkward or drama filled. For me, that wasn't the case. I loved being around so many different people with different perspectives, different walks of life. Even in small town Iowa, walking down the high school hallways, I noticed people who looked different, sounded different, were different.

I often found those hallways a bit of a reprieve, in fact. At the time, I was walking through the hardest thing I had experienced in my short time on earth—my mom and dad were getting a divorce. Enduring the fallout and complications from our family unit looking different was a lot for a teenager to manage, so school was something I looked forward to each day. I got to see my best friends daily, play sports with them, goof around with them. I was constantly around people I knew and loved, and it was a great distraction from the difficulties I was facing in my personal life.

Football was another positive distraction for me at the time. My assistant coach, Jay Bickford, was a rock in my life. He was in his early thirties, a former Division One offensive lineman at the University of Iowa. He was one of the biggest, strongest, most muscular men I've ever seen, and yet he was also incredibly kind. Before games, during practice, after practice, in the hallways—Coach Bickford just had a positive vibe about him. You always felt good when you were with him. ...