January 18th

I thought I would have all the energy in the world to write about our travels in Poland. I woke up this morning invigorated and ready to have another great day abroad.

I checked my e-mail and facebook while sipping a cup of coffee and came across some horrible news that has not left my mind all day. When I was in high school I a coach. His name was Dan Baker. And for anyone who has participated in a high school sport, you know the importance of a coach. They are so much more than someone who leads you through a sport and teaches you the ropes. They are your compass, your cheer leader, and your guru.

Dan Baker was my moral compass. I played EIGHT season of sports under his watch. Cross Country and Track. Fall and Spring of every year of high school. We immediately became inseparable. I joked around, pressed my limits, listened, pushed, tested, loved, cried, and laughed. He expected more out of me as an individual than I ever knew was possible. And as I achieved these mental and physical feats under his guidance, I slowly unfolded into an individual I didn't believe I had the capacity of becoming. My last day of track and field was harder for me than my graduation. I was more upset to say good bye to this man than I was to most of my classmates. Dan Baker was a coach, but more importantly, he was my friend. A friend that I've kept in contact with for many years after graduation. Every award I received in high school was because of him, both academic and athletic.

When I was in track and field he immediately made me captain. He made me captain during my sophomore year and put me in a position where I needed to grow up and quickly. He easily could have let me resume my sophomore status, joking around and screwing off like so many 16 year olds. Instead, he expected of me things I didn't expect of myself. Leadership, focus, goals. I needed to motivate others and command the team as a whole. The skills and confidence he gave me in myself are things that are still in use to this day.




So this morning when I was sipping my coffee and reading my personals, I read something I can hardly write. Dan Baker, a man who held a supreme hand in the path of my life, has stage four bone cancer. A man who was a year from retiring. A man who touched so many lives, the event made for him has over 600 participants. A man who is only in his early fifties. A man who just had a grand daughter.

I am really struggling to stay positive in an environment where I feel so helpless. I know he has the strength to fight this to the very end, and has thousands of people who will be unwavering support. But this does not change the fact that I am here. I will write him, but I still feel helpless. I am thousands of miles away from a man that I care so dearly about. A man who has touched my life in more ways than there are words. A man in his early fifties. A man who just had a granddaughter. A man who should have (and hopefully will) so much life ahead of him.