As I stand behind the group of youth football players waiting for their coach to finish talking, I can’t help but notice some of them taking a glance to get a good look at us. My first thought: Why aren’t they paying attention to their coach? 

Then I take a step back and think of when I was their age. I remember sitting on the red A in the middle of the field. The huge bleachers towering over the field and the varsity head coach talking to us. It was an unbelievable feeling. Then I remember the people that were there with us: my idols. The whole varsity football team was standing behind us, and I couldn’t help but also turn around to look at the people that I looked up to at the time. 

After this thought, I came back to reality. As soon as their coach finished talking,  the kids ran to the endzone to start their camp. As I saw their excitement of being able to play in front of their heroes, it made me want to make sure that they would get to experience an amazing camp with their idols like I was able to do as a kid. 

As I am walking off the field after the camp, out of the corner of my eye, I see one of the players run in front of me. As he looks up at me with an ear-to-ear smile on his face, he exclaims, “Thank you for coaching me.”

I thank him for coming, and give him a fist bump, and as he skips away with excitement back to his parents, I can’t help but smile and understand the role that I played in that kid's life. So from that moment on, every job I do, no matter how big or small, I give it my all, because you never know how someone's life might change because of you.