This past Thursday I had the honor of introducing Malcolm Mitchell when he spoke to those attending the 15th annual Thomas County Literacy Fair downtown at the amphitheater.

For those not in the know, Malcolm was a star wide receiver at Valdosta High School back around 2010, and was so good he was named an All-American. Recruited by many colleges, he ended up going to the University of Georgia, where he also was a star. While in Athens, he set several receiving records that still stand to this day. He would eventually get drafted by the New England Patriots and be part of their Super Bowl winning team in 2016.

But, all of that football prowess is not what is remarkable about Malcolm Mitchell. You see, as a star athlete, Malcolm was able to slide under the radar regarding things to do with his academics. That fact never really bothered him, until he noticed, while attending an entry level literature class at Georgia, that he simply could not read along with everyone else.

It turned out that Malcolm was a college student who could barely read at a middle school level.

Now, we all know that in this day and age if you are a star athlete with superstar potential all you have to do to be successful and even get a college degree is the bare minimum. If you are one of those star athletes you have tutors who help you at every turn, and professors who bend over backwards to make sure you stay eligible. I’m not saying all of that is right or the way things should be, but that’s the reality of it.

It would’ve been very easy for Malcolm Mitchell to simply fall into that flow, doing just enough to get by, stay on the field, and bank on his athleticism to bring him success. But instead of doing that, when he realized he had not fulfilled his potential as a student, Malcolm Mitchell made a personal commitment to learn how to read proficiently.

Instead of running from his deficiency, he faced it head-up. Of course, in today’s football world, going headgear to headgear with another player is called ‘targeting.’ And that’s what Malcolm did – he targeted his reading deficiency.

Just think about this: one of the star players at the University of Georgia, one of the best college football programs in the universe, sitting in his dorm room while all of his teammates were out and about being celebrities, reading “The Little Caterpillar,” which is a picture book designed for very young children to learn how to read.

Well, that is precisely what Malcolm Mitchell started with on his journey of empowerment, and he thus challenged himself to get better and better with his reading skills until eventually he was reading Harry Potter books and diagramming the sentences out of them to better understand why sentences were written the way they were.

Remarkably, Malcolm Mitchell decided to write his own book, a picture book called “The Magician’s Hat” intended for young children just learning how to read – basically to help them get started exactly the way he did.

And that is precisely what he did – and, as things would turn out, he is now a published author of two children’s books, has won numerous awards for his efforts, and has been featured on pretty much every major network known to man who have presented their own stories of his inspirational path.

The state of Georgia wisely has chosen him to be an ambassador for literacy here in our state, giving him an opportunity to visit communities across the state to share his story. While in these communities, he gives copies of his books away to any young child who wants one, all the while encouraging them to learn how to read.

In his discussion here in Thomasville, he shared with everyone young and old within earshot about how people who read are far less likely to be unemployed, have criminal records, and generally be more successful in almost every aspect of their lives. But more than anything, he challenged the young people in attendance to understand that being athletic and being smart do not have to be mutually exclusive entities, and the best path toward being smart is to empower yourself through the power of reading.

He also shared how being called a ‘nerd’ by his teammates because of his dedication to reading wasn’t a slur as they intended it to be, but rather a badge of honor that he wore proudly.

I know us folks who are in the long-in-the-tooth club look at our younger generations and think there isn’t much to hang your hat on in regard to hope for the future. But I can tell you, I have all confidence in saying that as long as we have folks like Malcolm Mitchell walking around and using their own stories to inspire those generations younger than them to do better, be better than perhaps they ever knew they could’ve been otherwise, we still have a fighting chance at remaining a beacon on the hill for the rest of this poor planet.