Chicken Nuggets

His name was Mike. He had a jolly smile and a laid back attitude. He stood just a few inches taller than me when I met him at 15 years old. It was the summer before his sophomore year and he was living in a group home made of white shimmery cinder block tacked on the backside of an octagonal church.

He was honest from the jump and made his intentions very known. When asked if he was ready to get some life coaching and mentoring, he half signed his name to the agreement because he was only half interested.

But whether he was all in or not, he gave it a shot. The boy had been truant upwards of 50 plus times the school year before. And he had a family legacy of drug dealing and drug use to live up to if he desired.

But he didn’t desire that.

What he desired was education. And helping others. And inspiring his peers. And excelling at sports.

So, when we set out that year to chisel away at his facade to find who he was deep down inside, I had no idea how inspired I would become as I learned who this young man really was.

He was smart. He got the grades, he finessed the teachers, he knew how to find a study buddy or two, and he pushed himself to enroll in the most challenging classes.

He was well liked. There was no higher compliment than your peers choosing you as homecoming and prom king in the same year. And the teachers saw that he was pretty special as well.

He was an athlete. He worked himself on and off the field. He would eat, sleep, and breathe football.

Besides growing up in a vast, sparse, boys locker room kind of a group home, Mike had bounced around from family member to family member. So, this made spending years in one place- even if it did have plastic mattresses, steel frame bunks, occasional fights and gang bathrooms- feel like a blessing to this young man who was a natural at seeing the glass half full.

As I got to know him, I marveled at his charisma, his deep seated joy, his enthusiasm for life and his “can-do” attitude.

As if that wasn’t inspiring enough, one day I went to see him for a coaching session at the group home shortly after we had worked to get him his ID, his social security card, and a bank account so that he could get his first job at Wendy’s.

When I was asking him about the job and how it was going- of course he had good things to say. But then he told me a story that floored me.

He said when he got his very first paycheck, he turned around and bought some chicken nuggets at the counter.

I was thinking that must have felt so good considering meals in a group home of 15 teenage boys are monotonous and definitely not what you want when you want it.

But then he says, “there is this homeless man outside of Wendy’s I always see when I am walking home, so I gave the nuggets to him”.

With his first hard-earned cash, with a hot meal that he chose, with the pride of getting what he deserved- he gave it away to someone else. Someone he viewed as more needy than him.

He walked the rest of the way home and ate the group home leftovers knowing he had just fed the hungry- and he was happy.

———

Mike, is now 20 years old and beginning the pursuit of his first entrepreneurial venture as a sports trainer for young athletes.

And I, cannot wait to see what he is going to do!

Author: Erin NeSmith

Erin NeSmith graduated from the University of South Florida in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in Interpersonal Communication and a minor in Music. She also earned her Professional Coaching Certification as a life coach in 2016. Mrs. NeSmith has spent the majority of her career serving at-risk populations as a Re-entry Counselor, Teacher, and Program Director at New Life Village, a intergenerational adoptive community. She has a strong desire to partner with at-risk teens through coaching and mentoring as they become the best version of themselves. To that end, she founded Grow Into You Foundation, Inc. in 2016, which seeks to plant hope, shift perspectives, and restore power to at-risk youth, particularly those in and aging out of the foster care system. Mrs. NeSmith enjoys spending time with her husband and three children, reading professional development books, clowning (no, really!), singing and songwriting and participating in karaoke nights with friends.