Compassion

When I think about compassion, I can't picture any of my teachers over the rest. The one person who does come to mind was instead my eighth grade football coach, Eric Bartosh. Being one of the smallest kids in my year, I probably should have realized football was not the right sport for me, but I stuck with it and one reason was because of Coach Bartosh. He motivated me to be the best player I could be regardless of size. My most vivid memory of that season was when we had to do a drill called an "Indian run." During the down time of the drill we had to do push ups and sit ups. When we were doing the push ups, he called out "Redig!" Came right over to me and started doing push ups right in my face. I was exhausted but I pushed to keep up with him. At first I felt like I was just getting called out, but later realized he was motivating me to work as hard as I could. I don't feel as though Coach B was compassionate towards my size in a sympathetic way, but in a "I'm gonna make you the best," way. Because of how he treated me, I have a lot of respect for him. I believe he instilled a lot of motivation in me to always be my best regardless of the challenges I have to face. I am not really sure how this applies to teaching except that I hope I can make an impression on a student's life similar to the one Coach B left with me.

-Mike