“Everybody is a genius, Albert Einstein said. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Well, thank goodness Ennis High School senior, Michael Hubner--for three years dead last in his class--is his only judge, because that man is anything but stupid. In fact, if you judge him by the intelligence of his questions, youll discover that Einstein was right...Michael, too, is a genius. Before I get ahead of myself, though, a little background is in order. From the time he was four, he was raised in Ennis by his grandparents. My grandmother was amazing, Michael beamed. She was my everything..my girl, my lady, a total sweetheart. She would never go out without make up, but she always wanted to cook a big breakfast for me, so shed wake up real early, at 5:30 in the morning, and do her hair and make up, so after I ate she could take me to school, then go shopping, looking beautiful. But she wasnt above playing in the dirt with me either, he continued. With my grandfather working up at Moonlight, shed play baseball and stuff with me just as eagerly as shed sit down with me and let me talk to her about my day, whatever it held. Even when I got old enough to take care of myself and my grandfather was being treated for cancer, I always knew she was there for me. Blushing, he added, I even told her I wanted to be a body builder. She didnt care for it so much, Michael said, laughing and tearing up at the same time, but she always listened. She was funny, too. As I got bigger, shed feel my biceps and tell me how proud and impressed she was. Just dont let these muscles (his traps) get too big, shed say. I dont like those. By time he was done talking, the tears flowed. When she died the summer after my freshman year, he said, shaking his head and looking down. I was devastated. I lost my everything. Around that time, too. I lost my step dad, Michael said. Thats right, by the time he was sixteen, in addition to being more or less apart from his mom for nearly a decade, Michael had lost the love of his life, his step father whom he liked, plus bore the burden of his grandfathers life hanging in the balance. (I think wed all agree...thats a lot for anyone.) Luckily, though, Michael wasnt alone and, in Ennis, was anything but a number. All kinds of people helped me, Michael said. Out of insecurity, even before my grandmother passed, I was a mouthy punk. I paid the price for it, too, once. Big time. I was in the eighth grade--weighing all of 78 pounds--and took a certain girls phone and started texting a bunch of trash to another boy who liked her-- Luke Dobbs, a junior. He thought he was texting her, asking, who you sitting with?, and I replied, Michael Hubner...hes hot. And it escalated from there, until, wham!, I felt this fist in my face. He called my bluff, had made his way through the crowd at a basketball game, and punched me square in the face. It happened so fast, too. He split my nose, chipped a tooth, and gave me a black eye that lasted two months, but I totally deserved it. When everyone asked why I didnt fight back...thats when I knew I had to get serious about getting bigger, he said. So I started lifting. Its also when people like Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Frederickson, the 66 principal and ex-Marine, took a real interest in me, he noted. And when I bonded with William Wesley Goodman, my swolemate. (A swolemate, according to Wes, is a gym buddy with whom you can get a good pump in and someone who also likes to look at reflective surfaces and flex with you or is willing to judge a pose.) Without Wes, Michael said, smiling again, Who knows where Id be? He got me into lifting, made me interested in nutrition, and basically helped me through school. Shoot, without Wes, Id be a junior! I could go on forever about Michael--how he went from 34th to 16th in his class this year, how he doubled his weight from 78 pounds to 160 and can bench press twice that now (290), how he wants to compete one day in the Mens Physique Mr. Olympia Contest and become a nutrition expert and personal trainer in the meantime--but I wont. Instead, Ill conclude with the best question asked yet of anyone Ive interviewed. If you listen to it carefully, youll hear not only the genius of it, but the selfless generosity and compassion of his late grandmother: Why live an unhealthy life when its so easy to live a healthy one? Ill also leave you a rather impressive picture, one that has been viewed on Instagram by thousands of viewers and has received several shout outs from potential corporate sponsors like Bodybuilder and one of his mens fitness heroes, Jaco de Bruyn (Google him). Congratulations, Michael for 13 great years at the Ennis Schools, for graduating despite your considerable obstacles, and for all your tremendous personal accomplishments. Something tells me that you are going to have a profound impact on a generation desperate for your example. Bless you, boy! Bless you!
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 03:45:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015