We Come Alive 5

Epilogue: Jacob Miller

Jacob Miller

After graduation, Jacob packed up his new Jeep Wrangler handed down to him by Ricky and drove 17 hours over the course of three days to go off to college. Since he was going to the University of Michigan, he had to drive for five hours per day. He didn't do it alone, he went along with his dad to try to make up for thirteen years of them never knowing each other. Jacob at first wasn't thrilled about knowing he'd be stuck with his dad for three days alone, but it became one of his favorite memories of him and his dad that he cherished for the rest of his life.

Throughout college, Jacob took football very seriously but did know in the back of his head that he didn't have a future in it after graduation. Unfortunately, Jacob was forced to focus strictly on his studies after he broke his right arm in a pileup during a game his junior year.

He graduated with a degree in Communication and Media, something he didn't know what he would do with until he got an internship with a rich businessman who gave him the idea to tell his story after overtime until the early morning.

Jacob got a job as a motivational speaker after he got recognition for always motivating people with his life story and his wise mind. He became well known for talking about his life, childhood, and the lessons he learned from being a Jaguar:

Jacob walked across the stage with a wireless microphone headset on as he looked out to the crowd. There were cameras getting every angle of him, something he use to be petrified of but had now grown used to.

"I grew up moving from state to state with my mother and younger sister. I never made any real friends until I was a junior in high school. We moved to Dallas, Texas. I went to a local public high school and even got an easy in on the football team. I should've thought more deeply about that because...football is taken very seriously in Texas. Friday Night Lights is real." He chuckled making the audience laugh. "I became the starting wide receiver after my first try out, my only try out. On the first day of school, I walk into the locker room after school and..." he smiled to himself, "I never knew how my life would change being on this team. This isn't some storybook fantasy where I magically fit in and get the team to accept me." He stopped mid-step and looked at the crowd. "I was the only white person on the entire team." The crowd erupted into laughter seeing how serious he was. "Now, that's fine. No problem, but they never let me live it down. On the first day, one of the other boys Ethan Hernandez gave me the nickname, Blanco. The color white in Spanish. It got to the point that the coaches called me Blanco, too. Now usually I would just play football for a few weeks, maybe the rest of the season then I'd move. And that did happen. But I came back. Something connected me to them. Maybe it was because I liked being different, maybe it was because I was dating the head coach's daughter which was a big no-no because when we broke up, he nearly killed me every day." Jacob walked to the edge of the stage.

"Or maybe it was because I learned my best lessons living there. Water was thicker than blood. I always thought to live in Texas was going to be this one-way street and this one viewpoint place, but in reality, it's not. You have to find yourself in the culture. Sometimes it's not easy, most of the time it's not, but you find who you belong with. Sometimes they don't look like you or speak like you, but they get you. They understand you. They know where you're coming from and how you feel. I didn't know any of those things, but they taught me. They taught me how they live in America. How I'll always have my foot in the door without even having an interest in that door, but they can't even get in. They have to bust it down, go through a window, or pretend to be something they're not. I learned a lot more about myself in two and a half years than I did in sixteen."

Jacob continued with a smile. "There was a boy named Ricky, he was Egyptian. He was best known for beating people to bloody pulps and thinking later. His dad used him as a punching bag for fun and taught him to do the same to others. When my mother lied to me about my childhood and ripped me away from my father for 16 years, she gave me the option of either live in her house or be completely cut off if I left; it was the boy who beat people to bloody pulps who gave me a home. He treated me like a brother and his mother housed me like her son. He even forgave his father for leaving him with both physical and psychological scars. Ricky's ex-girlfriend was this black girl named Clover. She was the quarterback of our team. Everyone called her a bitch, heartless, conniving, words I can't even say up here, and said that she was bad news. When it came down to the wire, she was the one who would take the criticism and stand up for her friends. I've never met someone so loyal in my life. For legal reasons, we're not gonna get into how loyal she was." He chuckled. "Jose was this Mexican boy who had his entire future laid out for him, the most well off out of any of us. And he knew it, however, if you asked him to get in the car and drive 7 hours to another state for a 30-minute conversation with someone, he'd have the playlist ready just so you never go through anything alone. He never wanted people to go through life alone. There was the baby of our group, Stephen. He was Jewish and that was one of the biggest parts of his personality and he'd never let you forget it. His favorite past time was just to live in the moment. He was the first one to tell us to stop and smell the roses. We don't live forever, so why not remember the little things and laugh about them later? Andrew was one of the interesting ones if I'm honest. He was Asian, Chinese to be exact, and was an idiot, a backward stereotype. He also came from nothing. The fascinating thing about our school district was that you had people who came from the lower class, like Andrew, and people who came from the upper class. Andrew lived in a two-bedroom house with eleven people. Family meant everything to him. He would do back-breaking labor for his family just so they could smile. He'd do anything to see the people he loved smile. Diego, the Latin lover, couldn't keep a relationship to save his life. He went from one girl to the next, be in love with his high school sweetheart and somehow always ruin it. Diego was the rawest out of all of us. I've personally never seen him cry, but he can take the brunt of the force of a thousand men and not shed a tear. He wore his heart on his sleeve, loves everyone he meets, and was the first to defend us even if it meant he would be outcasted. He cries rivers when he finds out he's having a child, wanting to give them a better life than he could ever dream of. He never forgot a favor and would pay you back twice over. Not money wise though, he still owes me $30."

The crowd chuckled while Jacob smiled softly. "But finally there was the Spanish Ethan, the one who started this story. The one who gave me my nickname. Unlike the others, I meant him as the only happy one. The only truly happy one. He always had a smile on his face. He was always laughing, made everyone else laugh, and had no problem making a fool of himself. He loved kids and he especially loved his younger sister Ariana. That's why when he overdosed on drugs our senior year, we had no idea he had any problems. He would cry himself to sleep, starve so his sister could eat, not see his parents for months at a time, but he never complained. Ethan was my favorite just because he taught me that at the end of the day, your reputation walks in the room 15 minutes before you do. His reputation went from being the class favorite to a drug addict. That destroyed him inside, but not for long. Ethan figured that if others were gonna judge, let them. Now? He's a father, a husband, a nurse, and most importantly; he makes sure everyone else smiles with him. This time his smile is sober. And me? Simple. I'm the white kid who walked in and realized my problems didn't compare to them. They were living horrible lives in my books, but to them, it was just another day. I loved them with all my heart and learned what true love is. To care more about them than me. To sit in hospital rooms, courtrooms, and sit in cars doing nothing for hours, together.

"One day Ethan asked me why I thought of them as my family. Why I stuck around. He said, What? Never befriend an Egyptian, an Asian, a black girl, a Latino, a Spanish boy, a Mexican, and a Jew or your life will be completely messed up and you become attached to them? Now I say yes. Moral of the story; you never know what someone's really like until you get to know them. Everyone told me to stay away, they're bad news, they're terrible people. Yeah, they're the worst. They're violent, former drug addicts, liars, heartbreakers, and can be the worst people you've ever met. They're also mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, best friends, sons, daughters. They're...you. Thank you."

Jacob eventually fell in love with his personal assistant, a woman named Nia a few years his junior. He settled down with her after a few short term relationships throughout his 20's. They got married when he was 29 and were expecting their first and only child by his 30th birthday.

Jacob moved back to Dallas after college and every once in awhile went to his old high school to see the new roster of players. He often brings his son along with him too. His son went by RJ, even though Jacob named him Richard, a name people would automatically know the history behind.

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