Recently, I’ve been working with my youngest son, Geoff, on helping him set up his coaching business website.

Geoff is a former baseball player who was drafted by the Marlins out of high school and then played college ball at Florida Gulf Coast University. Geoff is also hearing impaired.

Both of our boys were born with a bi-lateral, sensorineural hearing loss. For Geoff, school was always a struggle. I helped him a lot but even I didn’t know the extent of his inability to read. Brandon had picked up reading like a pro and, while I knew it was difficult for Geoff, I didn’t know just how difficult it was.

I love to read and I’m a fast reader. I sometimes read a book a day. I remember one time when I was reading a funny book, I laughed out loud and Geoff asked me what was so funny. I told him it was a funny book. He replied, “I can’t read fast enough to know if a book is funny.” It broke my heart.

Because he was so good at baseball, Geoff made it to college. His grades in high school were good, too. The Marlins drafted him to follow, requesting that he attend Seminole State College in Oklahoma. We were thrilled as we had planned to move to Oklahoma and this gave us an option to watch his college baseball games.

Geoff always had difficulty with testing so we lined him up with the IEP (individualized education plans) folks at the college. Little did I know that the reason he tested poorly was because he read so poorly.

Geoff learned how to read as an 18 year old college freshman. I was so excited when he told me he wanted to read something “for fun”. I remembered that when I had read The Firm by John Grisham it was a fast, easy read so I suggested it to him. I told him not to be afraid of the small words, the story was good. He loved it and became a big John Grisham fan. He also enjoys reading James Patterson and Stuart Woods. To be able to say that this son has favorite authors and enjoys reading gets me all choked up.

But this is not all that Geoff reads. He reads EVERYTHING. Anything that interests him, he grabs a book and reads and absorbs it. It’s truly inspiring for me to watch him as an adult having overcome all of the things that could have held him back if he didn’t have the determination to succeed.

Geoff has now started a coaching business. Personal, athletic and individual mind strength coaching and I can’t imagine anyone who would be better in this role. Geoff is smart, motivated and he understands what big obstacles are and knows they can be overcome.

So thank you, Geoff, for inspiring me. I’m proud to be your mom. 🙂