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Danielle Meyer’s letter to Rodman Philbrick, “Freak the Mighty”

Dear Rodman Philbrick,

As I read this book, “Freak the Might,” it made me think of my school.  My school is a school where sports dominates.  For me that really stinks.  I’m involved in a few sports but I’m no all star.  I’m more like Kevin.  I’m a good student.  When you are in a school where sports dominates you are looked at as an outsider or a person who is just different.  After reading this book, I realized that I might be an outsider but I’m the one with everything going for me.

“Freak the Might” has also shown me that you don’t have to do what the crowd is going.  I don’t have to go out and pick on kids or go out and drink to have a good time.  I can just be myself with just a few of my closest friends.  You have to be true to yourself!

I have also learned to use the abilities that I have.  Kevin was always trying to find knew ways to improve on things.  He was always inventing something and trying new things.  He also did everything he could to help Max to live up to his ability.  After reading this book, I have become involved with a 4th and 5th grade mentoring program and a Jr. High mentoring program.  I have learned that I was given my abilities for a reason!

Kevin and Max were the two most different people you could ever find, and they turned out to be best friends.  Sometime you just have to look outside the stereotype that you get all the time.  Some one might be the neatest person in the world and may complement you, but because you were too busy looking at what you thought you knew about someone, you lost that chance.  Kevin and Max got that chance and it has made me look for that chance.

The last and most important thing that “Freak the Might” has taught me is hope.  Kevin never once thought he was going to die.  He never lost that hope.  It kept his spirit alive.  It also kept Max alive as well.  When things don’t go your way a lot of people shut down.  Not Kevin.  He had to fight all his life and the more things went downhill, the more fight he had in him.  Max was so mad at Kevin in the end because he had lied to him, but as the nurse told Max, maybe  Kevin really believed that he was going to get a new body.  Wouldn’t that be just like Kevin?  Always thinking the best is yet to come even when he knows that he won’t get to see his high school graduation, he’ll never get married, or have kids of his own.  That was Kevin.  He never lost that hope.

That has made me see just because I get a bad grade on one test to keep my hopes up because there is always another one to come.  At first there was one thing that kept me from believing this, my grandma’s Alzheimer’s.  When I saw her going through that I lost a lot of hope.  As I sit here and write this it brings back my hope.  Sometimes you think of hope in the wrong form.  I thought if it as my grandma’s health returning.  I have learned that that isn’t the hope I need to have.  I need to have the hope that she will be moving on to a better live with God. 

Just remember always to ask for the most out of life…even if it is just for more gruel!

Sincerely,
Danielle Leigh Meyer