Robert+Mucitelli

You ever fear you’ll go through life and not be remembered, that you’ll just be another random person who wandered through life and never made a big impression? That was always something I never wanted to be. I was going to be someone. I was going to be on TV and I was going to be famous.

I thought I had it all figured out in 9th grade. If I didn’t make it as a professional football player, I was going to be a sportscaster, and not just the guy who worked the local news either. I was going to work at a major network and do nationwide broadcasts. My mind was made up. I was going to be famous and memorable.

All my plans meant college, including pro football, so I fully intended to go to college all along. However, I wasn’t the most motivated student in high school. I wasn’t very organized, didn’t know how to study because I didn’t have to, and I did just enough to get by and kept an upper 70s to low 80s average based mostly on test and quiz grades. I wasn’t a fan of homework. Luckily for me my SAT scores were good and I was accepted into Canisius College.

At this point I knew I wasn’t going to play in the NFL. I was realistic with myself. Despite having a 6’7” father I had been stuck at 5’9” since the end of 9th grade thanks to my wonderful, but short, mother and wasn't nearly as fast as the guys my height who played on Sundays. So, I decided I was going to enjoy the experience of playing college football and put everything I had into it because I knew this was the end of the road for my playing career.

In the fall of 1996 I was a freshman at Canisius College majoring in Communication Studies with a dual focus in TV/Radio Broadcast and Journalism and playing football. I was away from home and on my own for the first time, which I actually enjoyed and was able to handle for the most part. Everything was going according to plan until the fall of my senior year. That's when then the direction of my life changed dramatically.

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “A blessing in disguise”? This is what happened to me. That Fall my dad lost his job and my family had some other financial issues, which meant my mom and dad couldn’t help me out in paying for college anymore. Well, there I was with five classes left before graduating and owing Canisius $10,000. I didn’t have that kind of money or the means to borrow it. So, I returned to Syracuse and moved back in with my parents.

My younger brother was still in high school and playing football. His head football coach knew I wasn’t in school and asked me if I wanted to coach. I didn’t have a whole lot else going for me, and now that I wasn’t playing I missed being connected to the sport. So I agreed. This is the most important decision I have ever made in my life.

I thoroughly enjoyed coaching and the season was fun but that’s not what grabbed me. I had a senior from that team come up to me at graduation and thank me for changing the direction of his life, not for what I did for him with football, but with his life overall. I realized then that this is what I needed to do. This is how to leave an impression on the world. It’s not the superficial fame that comes with being on TV. Impact a child, I know high schoolers don’t like to be called children but they really still are in many ways, and help them. That is a lasting imprint because then their life is positively changed and they can make a positive impression on someone else and so on and so on. I know it’s not going to happen with every student or with every class or even every year. But if I can help one, then I’ll always be remembered and my impression on the world will be permanent.

That’s why I scraped and saved for three years to get back into school and finish my undergraduate degree. Tha's why I worked a full time job while also attending grad school full time for my Masters in Physical Education. And that’s why I’m a teacher, to be remembered, to leave a permanent mark on the world through the lives of those students I've positively affected.