Amazing Kids! is proud to highlight the Amazing Kids! of the Month!

Each month, we showcase kids who are accomplishing amazing things.  We hope that by telling their special stories, we will inspire other kids to accomplish their own amazing achievements. 

12 year old Michele Ann Johnson is an example of one bright, mature and motivated young lady who isn't afraid to face tough challenges and come out a winner.  Her story, written in her own words, will help inspire you and make you want to get involved in something positive and rewarding in your life! 

Michele is not only an amazing golfer, but she makes sure she gets good grades in school too!  That is part of the rules for junior golfers who belong to junior golf associations.  They know how important it is to have a good education too!  Michele is a member of several junior golf associations, including the Western States Junior Golf Association (WSJGA), the Southern California Professional Golf Association (SCPGA), the Ladies Professional  Golf Association/Urban League (LPGA), the Young Golfers of America Association (YGAA), and the Junior Golf Tournament Association (JGTA).  She takes lessons from  Mr. Alton Duhon, an amazing golf pro and teacher, and plays in several tournaments throughout the year.  Check out the many tournaments she has played in below!

Michele lives with her amazing grandparents in Los Angeles, California.  As you'll read in her essay, they give her lots of love and guidance, and support her love of golf.  Let's hear it for grandparents!  Yeah!!!

Below is an inspiring essay she wrote on golf, and a report she wrote on her favorite professional golfer, Nancy Lopez! 

Index
Read Michele's essay called "How Golf Has Made a Difference in My Life," and who knows?  Maybe you'll want to sign up with a Junior Golf Association near you and become a junior golfer too!

Read Michele's report on Nancy Lopez, and find out some of the challenges Nancy faced when she was just beginning to play golf. 

Check out the list of tournaments which Michele has played in!

Michele shows off her amazing swing!

Golf has given me the opportunity to feel good about myself.  When I'm out there on the golf course, I really feel good.  I enjoy being outside in the open with the sun or just outside in the open spaces.  I feel confident and strong when I'm playing golf.

When I was eight years old, I told my grandfather that I would like to play golf, so he took me to a pro at Rancho Park and I started taking lessons.  I needed to do something that would make me feel good.  I really liked it a lot and played with the pro for one and a half years.  But I needed to play with kids my own age, so my grandfather found a new coach for me, Mr. Al Duhan, and I've been with him ever since.

You see, when I was six year old, a terrible thing happened to my mom.  She was killed in a drive-by shooting.  I was in the car with her at the time.  We just went to return a jacket to a friend and my mom had parked the car and down the street came a carload of crazy people shooting.  Well, my mom got hit.  It was so fast.  I think I was in shock for a long time, because I'm still working things out with my counselor.  This was the worst thing that could happen to anybody and it happened to me. 

When I play golf, I try to think about my mom and hope that I can succeed.  I want to do this for her.  Sometimes, I think she's watching me.  I want to continue playing and hopefully go to college.  I really don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I do know that I definitely want to play golf.

Golf gives me the confidence to do a lot of other things.  Because if I get good grades in school, I know I will be allowed to play golf.  If I'm good at home, then I know I'll get to play golf.  Also, golf helps me in life because I have control over myself.  I have learned to control my temper, and to play with kids my own age.  I have realized that if you want to achieve something, you have to work for it, because nothing comes easy.

Michele Ann Johnson
Age 11
10/22/99

Michele proudly displays one 
of her favorite trophies

Read this inspiring story of Nancy Lopez's life and career as a professional golfer, told by Michele in a report she prepared for school!  Because she is a golfer too, Nancy is Michele's inspiration and role model.  Who are your role models?  Is there someone that you look up to and admire too?

     Nancy Marie Lopez was born in Torrance, California on January 6, 1957.  She is the second child of Domingo and Marina Lopez.  She has one sister, Delma, who is eleven year older than she. 

     Soon after her birth in California, where her parents were visiting friends, she and her family returned to Roswell, New Mexico, a hot dusty community 200 miles southeast of Albuquerque.

     When Marina was pregnant with Nancy, Domingo told friends that he wanted this second child to be a boy.  When Nancy was born, he said, "Oh no!  Another girl!"  But his disappointment did not last long, and soon he was coaching Nancy toward a career in professional sports.

     In the 1960s, when Nancy was just seven years old, her mother became ill with a lung disorder. The doctor advised Marina to take up walking because that would strengthen her lungs.  So she decided to take up golf, because you do a lot of walking when you golf.

     Back then, it was very expensive to get a babysitter, so every week, Nancy would go to the golf course with her mother and father.  So that Nancy would not get bored, they would let her hit a few balls.  Finally, Nancy's parents realized that Nancy had a natural talent for golfing.

     As a special gift to Nancy, her father got her a Patty Berg four wood, which is used to hit the ball long distances.  Domingo Lopez had sawed off the club so that it would be able to fit a little girl.

     Nancy and her father participated in a number of activities together.  Besides playing golf, they enjoyed hunting and attending baseball games.  Golf was still Nancy's main activity, although her father was the only coach Nancy ever had.  After 6 months of strict lessons from her father, Nancy was better than her mother.  One day, Nancy asked for her own clubs.  Her mother gladly gave up her clubs for her daughter.

     Nancy remembers when she was young that her father said, "In golf, you only use your hands," so her father would not let her wash dishes because the calluses would soften up.  Even though she got out of the dishes, Nancy still did chores around the house.

     When Nancy was ten years old, she won the Girls Championship by over 60 strokes!  But playing golf for Nancy was not always fun.  She told People Magazine that before her tournaments, she was so nervous that she had to carry a trash can with her everywhere she went, because she would throw up!

     In addition to the New Mexico Amateur title and the Mexican Amateur Tournament, she also won the U.S. Golf Association Junior Girls' Championship twice, in 1972 and in 1974, and the Western Junior title three times.

     Nancy attended Goddard High School in Roswell, where she played flag football and basketball and participated in gymnastics, track and swimming.  She became the first female member on an all-male golf team.  During those years in Roswell, the local golf club membership was too expensive, and did not allow Mexican Americans to join. 

     During Nancy's last year in high school, she accomplished something very special when she placed second in the Women's Open.  Nancy had planned to go to college to pursue a degree in engineering at the university of Tulsa, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  After they realized her talent in golf, they offered her an athletic scholarship.

     "I was always off on a golf course," she told a New York Times reporter.  Trying to juggle golf and academics became more and more of a struggle.

     Nancy got off to a great start.  In her very first professional event, the Women's Open, she won second place, and a prize of $7,040.  On September 29, 1997, Nancy's mother died unexpectedly after surgery for a burst appendix.

     By August of 1978, her second year as a professional, Nancy had surpassed the highest earning record of $150,000.  When asked about what she'll be doing ten years from now, she responded, "We'll have to see how I do this year with my new dedication to practicing and getting ready."

     However, the day may be nearer than ever when someone will have to replace Nancy Lopez on the golf scene, because someday she will retire and become a full-time wife and mother to spend more time with her husband Ray and her child Ashley.  No doubt, Nancy will be missed even more by her fans. 

     Nancy has proven that a person can overcome many obstacles, including the mixed blessing of achieving fame and fortune, and the difficulties and joys of balancing a family and a career.  Nancy has dealt with all of these situation with a fierce determination and spirit.  Needless to say, she has succeeded.
 

Michele Ann Johnson
January, 2000
 

Something to Think About...

Here are some questions you can discuss with your classroom teacher and classmates, your parents or your friends:

     After reading Michele's biography of Nancy Lopez's life, what are the things that stood out most to you?  What were some of the obstacles, both personal and public, that she faced as she tried to become a professional golfer?  Have you ever experienced any obstacles in trying to reach your goals?  What were they, and how did you overcome them?

     Do you think things have changed a lot since Nancy was growing up?  What did you think about the discrimination she faced at the local golf club in Roswell?  Do you think people today still face discrimination sometimes because of who they are, or the color of their skin, or due to some of their beliefs?  What would you do if you faced discrimination in your life?  Have you ever treated someone poorly because they were different than you were?

Finally, what did you learn about the importance of persistence and hard work in trying to achieve your own goals?

Note:  Have you ever heard of the word "discrimination?"  Do you know what it means?  Can you make a good "guess," based on what you just read?  If not, try looking it up in the Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary at: www.wordcentral.com,.  You can also talk to your parents about it, or ask your teacher to talk to your classroom about what it means too!

Calling All Amazing Kids!  We Need Your Help! If you are, or know any kids who are, doing amazing things, we want to hear about it!  Send us your stories, so we might be able to feature you too someday!   Please be patient, and we will do our best to tell your story some day -- hopefully soon!