We are all Zack McLeod.
The story is a long one that cannot be captured by simple words, but I will do my best. It will change you.
This edition of the newspaper is the Orientation Issue, and traditionally editors in chief of yesteryear have offered freshmen advice on how to handle college. I could do that, but you've heard it all already, and I have a story much more important to tell. It is the story of a man much wiser than I. It owns a message you need to hear much more, no matter who you are - freshman, senior, professor, alum, whatever.
Friday, September 5, 2008. My high school senior class was having a campout and I was in high spirits when my phone rang, eyes swelled, and life changed forever. I walked away from a crackling fall bonfire to hear somber, lonely words: "Zack's hurt. It's really bad."
Zack McLeod was and is one of my closest friends, but something terrible happened to him on September 5. Zack was a star defensive back on one of the most highly-respected private schools in the country, and his team played a scrimmage that night. He had earlier intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown. Later in the game, with no warning, he dropped to the ground.
They've reviewed the tape over and over again. Nobody can figure out what happened, but Zack suffered a serious brain injury sometime in the game, collapsing to the ground and having to be Mercy Flighted to the trauma unit at Boston Medical Center (he lives in Massachusetts). There was a blood clot in his brain and it was swelling.
The days that followed were emotional. He was in a medically induced coma for three weeks. Nobody knew if he'd survive, much less walk or talk again. His school organized "Zack McLeod turn-back-the-compliment-day" because Zack is well known for returning any compliment with one that's even better. No, seriously. If you told him that he played a good game, he'd instinctively tell you how he's always admired your sense of style, or something like that.
Everyone who knew Zack reached out to offer support. His parents were blown away.
Here's why: Zack is legitimately the best person I know. I'm not saying that because of the injury. I would've told you the same thing on September 4, 2008. Everyone knows that one kid who is good at everything. That's Zack, except he's also the nicest person you'll meet. Growing up, we'd want to go to the movies, but Zack would instead go hang out with the social outcast. He has a heart bigger than anyone I've ever met.
To make an extremely long story short, he has recovered very slowly. He has learned to walk again over the past four years, though it's still a struggle. He can't speak very well, and he recently took an IQ test that labeled him mentally retarded. What he can't say in words he'll express with high-fives and bear hugs. However, he can still type pretty well, and on the rare occurrence he gets online, Zack has the same loving personality.
His profile picture right now on Facebook? Him and his hero, Tim Tebow, smiling side by side. Tebow reached out to him when he heard Zack's story and the two hung out before and after Tebow played the Patriots in this year's NFL Playoffs in Foxboro. Here's a message Zack sent me last week: "yo I luuuvv youuuuu brotherr beaar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Yup. That's Zack.
Here's the moral to the story: run into him any day, and Zack will be the happiest, most content person you encounter. He's thankful for the trial, and it's a genuine thankfulness. He doesn't let it get to him. It's just part of life. It's just who he is.
And so it is with you. Every situation in college, every situation in life, will be what you make of it. No matter how successful you become, how beautifully the mirror smiles back, how vastly your bank account burgeons, you can fall at any time - and take my word for it, you will fall at some point. What are you going to make of it?
Will you mope, complain? Or will you rise above? Will you make an actual impact in your four years at the University at Buffalo?
Stay positive and leave a legacy. Change people.
We are all Zack McLeod.
Email: aaron.mansfield@ubspectrum.com
