Getting his due
Too few people in life get what they deserve. For most of us, that’s a good thing, because what we deserve is considerably less than what we have. We’re living on borrowed karma.
But it was nice to see Nick Marriam get what he deserves a few days ago: A handshake from the president and an award to hang on his wall.
Nick is the 15-year-old executive of a non-profit association, the Nickelby Project. I met him two years ago after somebody had told me about a remarkable kid who’d undertaken a remarkable mission. I subsequently wrote a piece about him, which you can find here.
What I liked about Nick, aside from the fact that he’d turned a childhood cancer scare into a well-regarded charitable enterprise, was that right from the very beginning he had an uncommon faith in his own instincts and an even more uncommon tenacity. Nick, thanks to his unhappy encounter with the medical system, had gotten a first-hand lesson in the value of gifts that can occupy, and divert, the attention of youngsters in the hospital. His gut told him that there was an opportunity in that lesson.
Out of that instinct has grown a bona fide charitable organization, with grown-up companies providing guidance and financing. It happened only because Nick stayed with his good idea, refining it and refusing to be discouraged. Any youngster could be forgiven if he or she decided that there are better things to do with the finite days of youth than badgering money put of grown-ups: Playing more ball, for instance, or simply pursuing fun. But Nick stayed focused on the task he’d assigned himself — rare enough in adults, much less for adolescents.
He was finally rewarded last week with the thanks of a president and all the recognition that comes with it. When I read about Nick’s turn on the national stage, I remembered what I’d felt after meeting him and hearing his story.
I felt that the whole adult/youngster dynamic had been turned around: I was the slacker being schooled in life by the old, accomplished hand.