The Journey Known as My Life

The Journey Known as My Life

Benjamin M. Phelps

PSY 202

Rochelle Kilmer, M.A. ED.

February 8, 2010

The Journey Known as My Life

The sound of the marching band and cheers echoed in the little valley. The small tremor of feet stamping the steel flooring in the bleachers was intense. The chants of “let’s go Knox, let’s go” was enough to give you goose bumps. The stadium lights shining down on us, this was it, we were in the spotlight. I had coached these kids all summer long, and finally it was game time. As they huddled around me right before kickoff I gave them a few words from deep within myself. “Guys” I said “this is it; everything we’ve been working on is for this moment here. If we can go out there and block and tackle better than they can, we will win. If you really want something you can have it if you’re willing to pay the price. That price means you have to work better and harder than the guy across from you. If you do that, the scoreboard will show the results.” At that point I knew I had found my calling, and I would have to return to school to make this my life. Now that I have, I must look back and map the road which brought me here and now.

Sidney is not the largest city in Ohio, but it sure has its share of crime and trouble. It is split almost in half between the small town ideologies, with the big city problems. There is where I was born and raised as an only child, without a mother. My parents had divorced when I was three, my mom had found drugs and they took over her life. She was imprisoned when I was five, and it would be thirteen more years before I would see her again. My dad, who had me at age eighteen, began to raise me on his own, doing the absolute best he could.

Being a single working class father was extremely hard on my father. He would work twelve hour shifts, six days a week, just to make ends meet and put food on the table. My grandmother became the mother in my life. She and my grandfather took care of me while my...