Dear Todd,

I know you are hurting right now. I know this has been a horrible day! The school year starts in just over a week, and not just any school year – the first day of SEVENTH GRADE is coming fast! You are entering Middle School! And you are not going to just any middle school. No, you will be attending the very middle school where your dad was an uber successful football and basketball coach just a decade ago. Earlier this morning, you heard your pediatric orthopedic surgeon get excited over all the progress you have made and how you have defied all the odds. Then, in the next breath, you heard him refuse to clear you to play football or really any sports in school or anywhere else. Now you are sitting at Diamond Sports in McAlester, bawling because your mom is refusing to buy you the white and purple Jordans. The ones you have longed for more than anything since you saw him wearing them on the Wheaties box. I know you think those black Reebok pumps are ugly, and you think you will be made fun of for wearing them to school, and like you need any extra reasons for the other kids to pick on you.

She won’t even let you try them on. The salesman brought out your size, and she is not letting you try the shoes on. It sucks, it really does. You hate your birth defect. You hate even saying the name of it – severe club foot. You hate when your parents are constantly reminding you what they were told – you would always struggle to walk, you would need a walker or cane by the age of 12, and you would be in a wheelchair by 21. I know you are thinking, “Well, I turned 12 last week, so where is the walker or cane? Why can I not play sports if I don’t need them yet?” I know you are also thinking, “If my legs and feet are so messed up that I cannot play sports, and follow in my sports legend father’s footsteps, why can’t I at least have the shoes I want the most before the wheelchair comes?”

Hey Todd, the wheelchair never comes! In fact, you wind up running distance races in your 40s, like half marathons! I wish I could tell you that somehow you are miraculously healed, and you get to play sports, and you become the first multi-sport hall of famer, but none of that happens. What does happen, though, is that these next few years shape your life.

You get asked to be the athletic trainer in high school, and that becomes your thing. Your closest friendships are forged in the training room and on the sidelines of the football field and basketball court. You are part of the team anyway, Todd, and your teenage years are so blessed.

Your mom never agrees to buy you those Jordans either, or any others for that matter. Eventually, you quit asking. But here is the really cool thing – retro Jordans (the ones from his playing days, just wait to see the craziness that happens with his career), they become what you are known for! It won’t be until 30 years from now, but it will happen. Through a long series of events, you wind up switching careers to education, and you even follow in your dad’s footsteps to become a school administrator. That is when you become known for your shoes. You use your adult money to buy Jordans, and you are known among your students as the assistant principal in suits and J’s. Your shoe game is legit and is talked about all over school and throughout the communities where you work. Your love for Jordan sneakers allows you to build connections and help students achieve greatness and change their lives and their families’ lives.

So, yeah, you are hurting right now, but it gets better, Todd! Oh, and guess what? Those white and purple Jordans, they’re known as the Grape Jordan 5’s, they are being re-released in true retro form in just 3 days, and you will be in line at the shoe store to finally get a pair of your favorite shoes of all time. So, get all of those tears out right now as you sit on that bench in the shoe department at Diamond Sports, but just know you will never stop loving Jordan shoes, and that passion for them will help you change lives in ways you never expected!