Climbing the Mountain

Image courtesy of CinemalocadiaÂ

Free Bird: A Success Story

Banks cries tears of joy after granted his long awaited innocence Image courtesy of Daily Mail

Widely regarded as one of the best football players in the nation, Brian Banks, planned on playing football at University of Southern California for the 2004 season. Until, at a moment’s notice Banks’s entire life came crashing down. Still, Brian overcame every obstacle that came his way until he finally achieved his lifelong dream.

As a junior at Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California, Rivals.com named Banks one of the top juniors in the country. His future already set after accepting a full athletic scholarship to USC, his life appeared close to ideal. All until one day, another high school student accused Banks of raping her on the schools campus. Promptly, police arrested Banks. The only issue: Banks never raped the girl, and she completely falsified the story.

On the advice of poor legal council who said a jury would convict Banks because of his ethnicity, he accepted a plea bargain. Banks’s once bright future appeared completely thrown away as he faced a minimum five-year prison sentence followed by 10 years of strict parole. However, Banks did not give up on himself or his innocence. Banks continually reached out to the California Innocence Project to support his case, but they never helped as they could find no evidence supporting his case. Despite all this, Banks refused to let his spirits fall.

Finally, after he completed his term in prison, Banks found the innocence that awaited him. In 2011, his accuser publicly admitted that he committed no crimes against her. While some might sulk over missed opportunity, Banks became inspired by his newfound freedom. He set his sights toward the same goal he dreamed of as a high school junior: the NFL (Powers).

Banks tried out for several NFL teams, but received very little success as a 32 year-old rookie. Despite missing the cut for multiple NFL teams, Banks refused to take no for an answer. The next year he tried out for the Atlanta Falcons, and finally after a false arrest, jail time, rejection by multiple teams, Banks displayed perseverance pays off as he made the 60-man roster off the Falcons.

Although Banks never played a regular season game in the NFL, his story of never giving up travelled throughout the NFL. He speaks to rookies yearly about his life and to spread his life montra of persistence.

Nowadays, Banks has found success in the offices of the NFL. He works in the NFL’s department of operations. Also, a feature film of Banks’s triumph of the human spirit projects to appear in theaters near the end of 2018. Banks prides himself on the grit and determination he displayed during his traumatic life experience and encourages other to do the same.

Humble Beginnings: Dave Lewis David Lewis now lives a comfortable life in Chagrin Falls as a corporate attorney practicing in real estate transactions for Porter Wright law firm. However, no one simply handed Lewis this successful life; he had earned it through hard work and perseverance. Now, seeing how far he has come, Lewis looks back, and reflects on his humble path to success.

Lewis, the middle child of five, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio during the 1970s and 80s. His mother, a nurse working night shifts, and his father, a TV repairman among other things, continually did their best to provide for Lewis and his siblings.

“I wouldn’t call my family poor, but we got pretty close to it. Our money, or lack thereof, never really bothered me. I definitely noticed though, we never got anything unless it came from a bargain bin. At a young age I learned if I wanted something, I would have to work for it,” Lewis explained.

While extremely bright, his family’s finances restricted his ability to go away to college, so he commuted everyday to Cleveland State University. At CSU, Lewis met his future wife, Ginette Kuper. Even in his love life Lewis explains his persistent attitude.

“I tried to ask her out a couple times and she kept telling me to just stay friends. Finally, after about two years of asking her out, she finally said yes, and the rest is history. It really shows that you should never give up on something that’s worth going after,” said Lewis.

Following his graduation from CSU, Lewis worked in marketing for WMMS Cleveland. Although he enjoyed the job, money remained tight and he felt as if he had not reached his full potential. Then, Lewis, a new father, reached out to a neighbor, Bill Weir, inquiring about Weir’s job as a corporate attorney. Ultimately, Lewis made the decision to return to school to study law. ​ Image Courtesy of Porter Wright After admission to Case Western Reserve University, Lewis thrived in law school. Although out of place as a young father competing against some of the nation’s brightest college graduates, Lewis felt right at home.

“I never worried about my age. I didn’t care who surrounded me, I knew I would work twice as hard as anyone there to achieve. Going back to school was not easy, but I knew if I just pushed through and kept working, great things would come,” recounted Lewis.

And come they did. After graduation Lewis received a job offer at Porter Wright, the same law firm as the man that pointed him in this direction, Weir. Years later, Lewis became one of the top partners at the highly successful firm. Yet, he does not forget his humble beginnings.

“Throughout my whole life, I learned hardwork and perseverance can get you anywhere. There’s so many smart people, but true success comes from persistence and a great work ethic.”

Navigating Sports Journalism Image courtesy of Sports Kings

Whether fans or not, no one can deny that sports have become a central piece of American culture. With the rise of sports, the rise of sports journalism has followed. Although thought of as glamorous TV personalities, the realities of sports writing remain much different.

While some sports writers receive large salaries, sports writers make a median income of $41,317. A salary that ranks among mechanics and electricians (“Sports Journalist Salary”).

Furthermore, sports writers often switch career paths to achieve their goals, meaning a sports writer must display persistence in order reach success. Only 7% of sports writers surveyed majored in journalism in college, meaning most switched career paths into sports journalism (Kauffman).

Even then, the vast majority of sports writers reach the national stage. Most sports writers work for local news or websites as opposed to the sought after ESPN or Bleacher Report. However, if perseverant, some may make their way to the mecca of sports journalism. Most all of ESPN’s journalists once wrote for a regional news source.

However, sports writing remains a wildly fascinating art, causing it to maintain such competition for the limited amount of jobs. Sports writing truly transcends sports. As explained by Nicholas Dawidoff, sports writing “transcends the actual importance of the games” (Dawidoff). This reigns true today, Sports writers oft write stories in which people already know the outcome, in this lies the challenge and art of sports writing.

Many fail at first, captivating an audience in a known event does not come easily, but the hard working can master such a skill. Thus, the mastery of such a skill lies in one realization: the essence of good sports writing lies in empathy (Dawidoff).

Moreover, sports writers can use their scope to look beyond the wall of sports and into real world issues. For example Cleveland Cavaliers power forward, Kevin Love, used his ability of sports writing and the help from Player’s Tribune (a sports writing website in which athletes publish pieces) to bring mental health to the forefront of the sports world. `Through the power of raw emotion told through sports, Love addressed a serious issue and changed lives.

Furthermore, sports journalism proves most rewarding when it changes lives, making all the years of grinding worth it. One of the greatest examples of this remains Rick Reilly’s Sports Illustrated article, ​Nothing but Nets. ​This article discussed donation of nets to fight malaria in Africa. Since the release of the article in 2006, Reilly has raised millions of dollars to donate nets thanks to his article.

A sports journalist must become hardworking and persevering due to the competition and levels of the job. However, with passion and resilience sports writing can do incredible things.

Unlikely Success Stories Collide in The Blind Side ​and ​The Kite Runner Success can come from anywhere. Whether in the boroughs of Afghanistan or the ghettos of Memphis, success grows with perseverance.

Football fan or not, Michael Lewis’s ​The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game​ masterfully crafts a story of great success, sure to leave readers in awe.

The journalistic style of the book gravitates around Michael Oher, a boy raised by the Memphis ghetto yet brilliant on a football field, truly boils down to a story of perseverance and success.

Lewis develops the history of the NFL, encompassing linebacker, Lawrence Taylor, and legendary coach, Bill Walsh. Lewis explains how the paths of these two football icons during the 1980s have collided with Oher’s, dramatically changing the young star’s future. The success of these three men all align to land the impoverished Oher a multimillion-dollar contract.

Oher’s story began in the Memphis ghettos in a community with no two-parent households. Raised by a drug addict, he and his 10 siblings often found themselves homeless. Remarkably, the drug dealers running the community saw Oher’s potential, never letting him stray into the drug game. Coincidentally, Oher never let life beat him down. With the help of others, he found himself at a private Catholic school. Later, Oher discovered his true gift, football. Oher ultimately overcame his adversity and became one of the best players in the country. to receive a full athletic scholarship to Ole Miss.

Lewis crafts an incredible book, taking a story of football and expanding it into a story of failure and success. Lewis makes The Blind Side impossible to put down, and he might have created his best work yet.

Likewise, Khaled Hosseini delivers a career-defining page-turner in ​The Kite Runner​. Hosseini crafts an intricate story of two young boys growing up in a war-torn Afghanistan. While fictional, much of the book resembles Hosseini’s own life.

Hosseini recounts the lives of Amir and Hassan, two young boys in Afghanistan in the early 1980s. At a young age, bullies abuse and then rape Hassan, while Amir watches. Despite this traumatic experience paired with poverty and civil war, Hassan overcomes his difficulties and lives humbly as a farmer with a family until a tragic death after stepping on a landmine.

Meanwhile, Amir, consumed with guilt flees to America at the start of the civil war. There, Amir must face poverty, language barrier, and racial stereotypes. Still, Amir remains persistent, he becomes a successful writer, but guilt still consumes him. Until finally, Amir embarks on a quest for redemption as he returns to Afghanistan to rescue Hassan’s only son.

Both will leave the reader fully captivated by intricate stories displaying incredible writing ability by both authors. However, the raw emotions in Hosseini’s story of redemption make it a better read than Lewis’s analysis of the growth of a high school football star.

Triumph Discovered in Two Uplifting Films

At first glance, ​The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) ​ and Warrior (2011) ​share very little in common. One portrays a single father’s quest for a job to overcome poverty, while the latter surrounds two brothers and their unlikely paths to the top of the mixed martial arts world. However, at a closer glance the two films revolve around the same basic story, persevering to the highest level of success.

Directed by Gabriele Muccino, ​The Pursuit of Happyness ​tells the unlikely true story of Chris Gardner.

Gardner, played by Will Smith, invested his life savings in portable bone density scanners in order to sell to hospital.

Still, as the investment goes awry his life begins to unravel. His wife, Linda (Thandie Newton) leaves him and abandons her son, leaving an impoverished Gardner to become his six-year-old son’s sole caretaker.

Soon after, Gardner applies for an internship at a high-up stock trading company. As Gardner strives to win a job at the end of the internship, he struggles with homelessness and even gets arrested for unpaid parking tickets. All the while, Gardner keeps his head high, an emotional performance by Smith allows viewers to really see the adversity Gardner had overcome on his path to success.

Finally, after the painfully long unpaid internship, Gardner, at long last, prevails over his struggles by winning a job with the company. Muccino brilliantly captures the triumph of the human spirit in a closing scene displaying Smith nearly in tears walking among the vast sea of pedestrians.

On the flip side, ​Warrior​ tells a story of redemption. With a baby on the way, a teacher, Brendan Colon (Joel Edgerton), fights in unregulated MMA matches to earn additional income. Ultimately, this decision costs him his job, forcing him to join a million-dollar UFC tournament with his house, and life as he knows it, on the line.

All the while, Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy), a military fugitive, rescuer of soldiers trapped in a tank, and Brendan’s brother embarks on a parallel journey towards the same tournament. While Tommy rises to the top of the UFC, he does so under a fake name to avoid his inevitable arrest.

Despite his underdog status, Brendan overcomes superior opponents and his newfound poverty, with great determination in order to keep his home. Finally, he finds himself in the million-dollar winner-take-all championship against Tommy, who dominated his way there.

In a final fight that will leave you with chills, Brendan finally triumphs, completing his triumph over hardship. Tommy, meanwhile, accepts his past as the military arrests him after the fight.

While both incredible displays of perseverance and triumphs of the human spirit, ​Pursuit of Happyness ​cannot matchup with the raw emotional fight scenes of ​Warrior.

While both great, ​Warrior ​gets the nod.

Works Cited Black, Todd, et al. ​The Pursuit of Happyness​. Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2006.

“Brian Banks.” ​Daily Mail Online​, Associated Newspapers, 27 May 2012,

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2150576/Brian-Banks-Football-star-jailed-falsely-rape-wants-219k-comp ensation.html.

“Dave Lewis.” ​Porter Wright​, Porter Wright Morris &Arthur, 2016, www.porterwright.com/david-m-lewis/.

Dawidoff, Nicholas. “The Power and Glory of Sportswriting.” ​The New York Times​, The New York Times, 28 July 2012, opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/28/the-power-and-glory-of-sportswriting/.

Hosseini, Khaled. ​The Kite Runner​. Riverhead Books, 2003.

Kaufman, King. “You Don't Have to Major in Journalism or Sports to Be a Sportswriter.” ​Bleacher Report Blog​, 2007,

blog.bleacherreport.com/2014/01/08/you-dont-have-to-major-in-journalism-or-sports-to-be-a-sportswriter/.

Lewis, Michael. ​The Blind Side: The Evolution of a Game​. W.W. Norton, 2009.

Love, Kevin. “Everyone Is Going Through Something.” ​The Players' Tribune​, 6 Mar. 2018,

www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/kevin-love-everyone-is-going-through-something.

O'Connor, Gavin, director. ​Warrior​. Roadshow, 2011.

Powers, Ashley. “A 10-Year Nightmare over Rape Conviction Is Over.” ​Los Angeles Times​, Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2012, articles.latimes.com/2012/may/25/local/la-me-rape-dismiss-20120525.

Reilly, Rick. “Nothing But Nets.” ​SI.com​, Sports Illustrated, 1 May 2006, www.si.com/vault/2006/05/01/8376263/nothing-but-nets.

“Rick Reilly Nets.” ​Sports Kings​, Sports Kings, 2013,

sports-kings.com/featured/watch-rick-reilly-wears-bed-net-after-losing-shooting-contest-to-stephen-curry.

“Rocky Mountain.” ​Cinemalocadia​, Wordpress, 13 Feb. 2017,

cinemalodica.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/man-machine-nature-training-and-ideology-in-stallones-rocky-iv /.

“Sports Journalist Salary.” ​Sports Journalist Salary​, 2018,

www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Sports_Journalist/Salary.

About the Author

​This ezine remains one of Peyton Lewis’s early works, as few other of his pieces have gone through

publication. The 17 year old began writing during kindergarten, but never received any publications for his imaginative books. Despite this, Lewis continued writing through his years and finally found success as he has become one of the top writers for the school newspaper. These published articles include groundbreaking writings such as “Thanksgiving Showdown”, “Warming Benches and Hearts”, and “Big Ballers Only”. Currently, he plans on taking over as editor in chief of the Tiger Times next year.

Outside of writing, Lewis plays for the football, basketball, and tennis teams. Lewis had to overcome adversity to play these sports as he suffered a devastating injury in the eighth grade. He suffered a torn ACL in the first quarter of a game against Orange. However, he stayed in the game to try to will his team to victory. They lost every game that year. Lewis went on to miss two full sports seasons trying to recover. After the injury, Lewis overcame multiple setbacks such as a hyperextension. Despite these struggles he lettered in all three of his respective sports during his junior year of high school. Currently, he looks to make a run to the state finals in men’s tennis this upcoming season.

Furthermore, Lewis also participates in multiple extracurriculars outside of sports. He held the office of class president until last year. However, he lost the most recent election. Lewis did not simply accept failure. He rose back up and now holds the position of financial chair for Chagrin Falls Educational Foundation Student Board and remains a member of the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee.

Lewis spends his summers working at the Chagrin Valley Recreation Center as a camp counselor.

Lewis has not always had this job. In fact, two years ago, Lewis applied for the same job and the the Chagrin Valley Recreation Center denied him on all fronts. Thus, Lewis had become introduced to the mulching business. Lewis worked as a mulcher after being declined at the CVRC. He grinded away deep into the hot summer days until he got the proper experience needed to work the job that he once failed to get.

Lastly, Lewis currently sits on the high honor roll with many of his fellow students, a task not easily done. Lewis specifically hurdled obstacles most recently; during the third quarter of the 2017-2018 school year. Lewis began this quarter failing in two classes. Rather than accept those grades and give up, Lewis began a quest of academic success as he continually inched towards higher grades in those classes. Through hardwork and perseverance, Lewis ultimately ended with a GPA above 4.0.

Peyton Lewis currently lives with his parents and three siblings in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.