Mike Hardy – The Reason that I am a Michael

I have never cared very much about what people call me, but for years most people have called me Michael.  I get asked all of the time whether I prefer to be called Mike or Michael and I have a canned response.  I tell everybody that when I was in high school one of my best friends was named Mike and that I was Michael and that was just how we were distinguished.  I probably go through this routine every couple of weeks and have for years.  Each time it reminds me of that Mike who used to be a huge part of my life and who, for many reasons, I am very grateful for.

I don’t remember how I met Mike, I think he was a friend of a friend and I am sure that we started to hang out because we were friends with, and probably both trying to woo, the same girl. I remember that by the beginning of our junior year in high school that we were pretty close and that we got much closer through that year.  I could write countless stories of adventures that Mike and I had that would make you laugh and maybe even blush, but I really want to focus on why I am grateful for Mike.

Mike and I had a unique and somewhat strange friendship.  We were very close and yet incredibly, if quietly, competitive.  We knew that in many ways we were similar, we were considered by many to be two peas from the same pod, we both thought that we could conquer the world and had no reason to think that it wouldn’t happen.  We often liked the same girls or at least cared for the same girls.  In fact I think that every time I found out that Mike liked a girl I immediately found myself liking her more and the same was probably true for him.  None of this was ever discussed openly.  We didn’t need to talk about our feelings or our competitive relationship because we always knew what the other was thinking.  In fact we rarely discussed ourselves when talking to each other.  Maybe it would have been a sign of weakness to talk about our own feelings and ambitions with the other “Mike.”  Regardless we were very close and very similar in many ways.

A good story about our competitive nature took place in a game of ultimate Frisbee.  I’ll keep it brief.  Mike and I were on opposing teams and went up for the Frisbee at the same time, my shoulder collided with his mouth.  Mike fell down unconscious and bleeding pretty badly.  After tilting his head so the blood would drain out Mike woke up and cared only about the fact that he had made the catch and that he was still grasping the Frisbee.  A litany of similar stories about our competitiveness could fill volumes.

Mike and I were so close that when he won a national poetry contest at the end of our senior year he invited me to be his “chaperone” on a trip to Washington DC to the awards ceremony.  You see students were required to have a chaperone over 18 and while Mike is older than me, I was already 18 and so fit the bill.  We went to DC for about four days.  In that time we went into every Smithsonian museum on the Mall.  That meant running from museum to museum.  We traded cameras so that I would take pictures of him with his and he would take pictures of me with mine.  We even figured we could save time by only having one of us pose for each important picture.  We were interchangeable so there was no need to have pictures of both of us at the Asian Art Museum for example.  I think we spent a total of 6 dollars each on food during the four days.  Instead we took extra food from the hotel breakfast and scarfed everything we could at the poetry events.  It was a good system.

The trip was fantastic, I love DC and it was a great way to see the city, I am grateful that Mike chose me to be his chaperone.  I will always remember that great trip.  But that trip is low on the long list of reasons why I am grateful for Mike.

Two stories explain two reasons that I will forever be grateful to call Mike Hardy a friend.

The first took place between our junior and senior years in high school.  Mike and I and several other friends participated in the American Legion summer camp for boys called Boys State.  As part of the camp they had campaigns and elections and two people were elected to be Senators representing Utah at the American Legion Boys Nation camp later that summer.

I decided that I wanted to run for that position so that I could got to Washington DC and have a remarkable once in a lifetime opportunity.  As soon as I decided to run for the Senate Mike was there with me every step along the way.  He essentially ignored the city that he was assigned to be in so that he could campaign for me full time for three days.  He went around talking me up and when we were at lunches he would stand up and introduce me to everybody while they ate.  He did all of the dirty work so that I could focus on coming across as a strong, stable, intelligent candidate.  For example it was Mike that took care of writing Vote for Michael on strands of toilet paper so that supporters could where them on the back of their shoes as they went to events.  He was a huge part of the reason that I was elected and that I was able to have one of the greatest experiences of my young life.

Because he helped me to win I was able to spend nine days in DC and visit al of the great monuments.  I was able to meet and rub shoulders with some of the smartest, interesting and charismatic 17 year olds in the country. I was able to go inside the White House for the first time and meet a sitting president for the first time.  I met with my senators and congressman and learned a tremendous amount about our nation and our government.  Mike is a big reason for that.

Around that time Mike had a huge impact on me in another way.  At the end of our junior year of high school I decided to apply to be a student body officer.  I had already been a class officer and so by school rules I was not allowed to run for the elected positions.  However, some generous faculty convinced the community council to change the rules so that I could apply for one of five positions selected by the elected officers.

I applied to be the Student Body VP of Student Relations and after days and days of persuasion I convinced Mike to apply to be VP of Activities.  In a strange twist of fate Mike was selected to be the VP of Student Relations instead of me and I was not selected at all.  I was genuinely upset, sad, confused.  The advisor to the student body officers had gone to bat for me convincing the community council that I should be allowed to apply.  They had voted to change a long standing rule prohibiting class officers to serve two years in a row specifically so that I could be an officer.  It was one of the most difficult days of my life.  It is one of only a few times that I cried as a teenager.

Mike called me not long after he had found out.  It would make sense that he would call, he was as confused as I was about the decision.  But his call was not just because he knew that I would be upset, he was not just calling to console me.  He actually called to tell me that he was going to resign so that I could have that position.  He was going to call the elected officers and announce that he didn't want the job and that it should be given to me.  He was the kind of friend that was more concerned about me and this thing that was important to me than he was himself.  In the end I could not let him do that and he ended up serving as a student body officer and doing a great job.  Yet I will forever be grateful to have a friend like Mike who would put all of that opportunity aside to make his friend feel better.  What a gesture of true friendship.

As it turned out the fact that I was not chosen ended up being a huge blessing in my life, but that is a story for another day.

I have been dramatically impacted by many friends and on other days I will share more about some of those, but Mike Hardy has a special place in my life because of the impact his friendship has had on me since those days that we had many sleep overs and had experiences like seeing how many girls we could get to bake us cookies. I will forever be grateful to Mike Hardy.