Coach Brodie returns for the fourth year to TIA charter school, helping motivate and train TIA high school students to face their fears and move forward when dealing with challenges. This is a two-day event. On the first day, all high school students are involved in the training session. The second day focuses on the seniors, helping them better prepare for graduation, college, and work.
New Theme Each Year
Every year there is a new theme. Previous year themes were Purpose, Success, and Leadership. This years theme was “My Story Quest.”
TIA staff is committed to getting all seniors accepted to a college after they graduate. TIA prepares them academically. But many of the students were having issues once they were in college with remaining in college, getting a good GPA, attending their classes, and dealing with the temptations around them. Coach Brodie gives them the life tools that are necessary to succeed in college, maintain a good GPA and college life, so that way they can finish college with a degree and go on to a successful career
What Is My Story?
For each person, it will be different. “Story” is another word for beliefs and the identities that we’ve taken on, who we are and who we are not. Stories can change. It’s a decision. You can commit to a new story today. Any great story includes trials, challenges, and crisis. That’s what often times help us grow to the next level. You need to pursue your dreams by getting out of your comfort zone.
What is “Facing Dragons” About?
Everyone has problems. As we all know, dragons don’t exist. Our problems are tribulations that we go through from time to time. Our problems are the “dragons” in our life. They are here to challenge you and make you grow so that you can reach the next level in your life. In order to slay your dragon or solve your problem, there’s a method to do that. Your dragon might be fear of public speaking, fear of failure, fear of what others think about you, fear of getting through college, etc.
The first day of Facing Dragons includes all TIA high school students. The second day focuses on TIA seniors. It’s their grad year and they need to make some decisions. On this day there is more one-on-one work being done with the students because it’s a smaller group. Ninety percent of the TIA student population is Hispanic. Many of these students will be the first in their families to graduate high school, let alone go off to college. They don’t have a clue what college will be like. They are concerned about money, the ability to pay for their schooling, what is college life really like and more. TIA staff helps prepare them for as many of these things ahead of time. Training with Coach Brodie helps in other areas by helping them learn to be mindful, dealing with stressful situations and how to deal with making the best choices.
Creating a Right of Passage
We as a society are soft in many areas when it comes to raising our kids. A thousand years ago people lived in tribes. There was a right of passage into adulthood for each person. In many cases, that person was faced with their mortality. In many ways, Coach Brodie is creating a right of passage for the seniors here at TIA. Last year they started the “Ice Bath Challenge.” The students are asked to jump into an outdoor dunk tank filled with water and 50 bags of ice. Many say, “There’s no way I’m going in!” This year it was 46 degrees on the day they had this challenge. They were all shivering even before they got into the water. But one by one they started jumping into the tank. Why? Because we trained that fear is actually fuel for your purpose. Fear is growth.
How to Confront Your Fears
Coach Brodie says, “The world is going to show up and help you get what you’ve been praying for but it’s not going to be in the most convenient package that you hoped it was going to be. It isn’t going to be easy. It will show up as some sort of challenge or fear. So we are creating an experience where they confront a fear or discomfort and willingly say “yes, I’m going to do this because I know I want to grow and face these challenges.” It’s no longer about other people taking them out of their comfort zone and putting them through a right of passage. Now it’s in their own hands to create this for themselves.”
Mr. Montemayor says, “It’s a mentality break through more than anything. It’s thinking outside the box. Sometimes goals seem impossible. But we give them the tools to help them hit those goals.”
Create A New Story
Coach Brodie says, “I believe life is actually a game. We signed up for it. Number one challenge, just like a video game, is to remember who we really are. Second is to identify our purpose. Why are we really here? Third, it to take that and live it and put it into action. What is the story they’re telling themselves about college, for example? Or getting into a relationship, their health, grades, what job they want to get or start their own business? Or around things like drugs, addiction, suicidal thoughts, depression. These are all stories, patterns, and identities. So one of the exercises we do is to identify the old story they’ve been telling themselves and believing. The second part is to create a new story. Who they really are, why they are really here, what they are committed to. They are already taking action on some uncomfortable things in this class so we’ve conditioned that. We’ve got them connected to each other in that way versus feeling alone or feeling that no one really gets them. Now we have true accountability. They are coaching each other. They are making commitments and following through on them. So success is really about having a new story about who they are and putting that into action.”
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