Mapping Out Your Future With Mike


Personal Background - Early Education

I attended elementary and secondary school in Canada. Fortunately for me, I was accepted by Princeton University into the Chemical Engineering program from which I graduated in 1972.

Blessed with an excellent memory, elementary school was not a serious academic challenge for me and I consistently my grades were at the top of the class list.

Social development was hindered by two factors:
- I reached puberty later than most of my classmates and was only 5 foot tall and 110 pounds on my 16th birthday.
- Class leading grades were attained without signficant effort.
When you combine those two things with a tendency to be outspoken and sarcastic... well I think you get the picture: put Mike in the category of runt with large mouth who ruins the bell curve for everyone else.

The highlights:
-top grades out of Grade 7
-2nd top grades out of Grade 8
-top grades in whole high school during grades 9, 10 and 11
-2nd top grades in whole high school during grade 12 and 13.
-special recognition prize from Ancaster High School upon graduation.
-missed Ontario Scholar award by 1 point out of necessary 640 due to grading error which could not be reviewed by rule.

During high school my salvation was Ice Hockey. I competed with the 'normal' sized kids and won a place at 12 years old on the police minor league team. I loved hockey, still do. When I got to high school there was no one else in a school of 800 who played at the level I did. I played football in Grade 10 because they did not have enough players to fill out the roster, I was too slow and too small, but I tried. I am telling this personal history because an incident during my high school 'career' which still influences my life today...

Because I was small and smart all the jocks picked on me, all the 'in crowd' picked on me. I ignored them. This continued almost through Grade 10, remember I am still 5 foot tall. Remember also that between practices and games I am playing hockey 5 times a week not counting pickup games. There is not an ounce of fat on me and I literally am always hungry. The goalie from our team, his initials are DB, moved from Dundas (where our hockey called home) to Ancaster (where I lived). We saw each other in the halls of high school and that was cool having someone from the team at school. One day he saw me getting shoved around by some idiots. I learned quickly that fighting back was useless and the best tactic was to ignore them and they would get bored and leave me alone. When Dave went up to these guys later that day and told them some stories, true stories. He told them that I was one of the most intense, fierce players on the hockey team. That I regularly blooded opposing players who roughed up anyone on our team. I played fearlessly and often was injured but never missed a shift, a practice, a game, anything. I never said a word to anyone except curt praise to my teammates. He basically said that if my eyes ever changed when they were messing with me, they had better run and expect a visit to the hospital...which was an exaggeration, kinda...
Anyway, after that day, my high school social life changed forever. No one picked on me. People actually said hello without a sneer or sarcasm. It was neat. Dave was our goalie and he was almost 6 foot tall. He was good looking and everyone like him. When he stood up for me, everyone listened and I reaped the benefits of my relationship with him.

Never underestimate the value of a friend or teammate. They can open doors faster than you can possibly gain entry.

Now the trick is how to develop friends or loyal teammates. You will need to consult someone smarter than me for that one. With Dave, I had several times protected him during games from opposition players. A goalie looks protected with all his pads but in reality he is very vulnerable. I think Dave saw me as a standup guy on the team so he stood up for me.