Last week’s collegiate championships brought up a significant full-circle moment for me.

7 year old Diandra couldn’t wait to sign up for the local pro-ams. Living in Northwest Indiana the professional bowlers came around quite a bit. I can see little Diandra now, with the widest eyes in the building, carrying around her bowling pin and sharpie, hoping that the professional bowlers would notice her and her pin. The interactions I had with the women on the LPBT became cemented in my mind. “She talked to me, dad” I would say after a pro signed my pin. “She actually looked at me in my eyes and asked me my name” I would say with the biggest 7 year old grin. I remember them. Vividly. I also remember the ones that blew me off. 

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As a kid, looking up to the professional bowlers, I wasn’t aware of how much impact those interactions would have on me.

But those interactions stayed in my life – cemented forever. Those good interactions and bad interactions influenced how I am with fans now. Because I remember how it made me feel. I hope that now I can pass on that wonderful feeling.

I’m certain that most professional bowlers or even very talented collegiate bowlers do not understand their power. They have the power to affect someone else’s life. To me, that is just the ultimate superpower. Because you have a special gift, you are able to pass on inspiration and hope to those who see you in the brightest light.

Last week, I interviewed Alec Keplinger, a standout bowler for Wichita State. (You can see on Facebook – HERE) He just won Collegiate Bowler of the Year and Player of the Year. But, there’s a great back story to how I first met him last year and how he’s connected to one of my greatest inspirations.

Last July, I went to the finals of the U20 Junior Gold to watch the final match with Cameron Crowe because he’s my EYT bowler. (You can read the post I wrote about that HERE.) During that tournament, I mingled and talked to some of the other young players around him. One of them said that another guy’s mom was a professional bowler. They kind of played it off though, saying I probably didn’t know who she was because she wasn’t one of the biggest names back then, even though she did win. The young player they were referring to was Alec Keplinger, and his mom is Sandra Jo Shiery. As soon as they said her name, I replied, Oh my gosh, I LOVED her! She really influenced me as a kid!

Sandra Jo Shiery, his mom, was one of two bowlers who I have memories of being exceptionally kind to me when I was a young bowler. The other was Dana Miller Mackie. Thinking about them takes me right back to those days in my mind. I can picture even the specific bowling center, as I carried around the pin. It makes me a little bit emotional to think about it actually because back then I had no idea what I would become yet, or that the inspiration I felt on those specific days would lead me to become one of the world’s best bowlers. And that I would one day be inspiring others the way they did me.

They’ve shaped how I view the idea of legacy. Sometimes people ask me what I want to be remembered for. To me, that’s such a easy answer. I want people to remember how I made them feel or how I got them excited to bowl more or how I inspired them to be a better person. I don’t really care if people remember the wins. 

Days after my interview with Alec at the Night of Championships banquet last week at the Intercollegiate Team Championships, I found out his mom was there. I hadn’t seen her since she was bowling on tour when I was a kid. I remembered exactly what she looked like back then. My interactions with her live vividly in my mind. And I did find her. I went up to her and said, I don’t know if your son told you, but you were one of my favorite Professional Bowlers when I was a kid and I’ll tell you why. You really made me feel special. You took time with me. You paid attention to me. Maybe you even asked me a question or two about my game. It really influenced me as a young kid. I just want you to know that you’re a big reason I am who I am with fans asking me now for my autograph.

I told her that bowlers like her and Dana Miller Mackie really influenced how I am with fans because I know how impactful it is. She was really touched. She’s so far removed from those days now, but I hope she understood to have somebody remembering how she made them feel was the ultimate compliment. It also happens that she is being inducted into the Bowling Hall of Fame this week, which I think is so timely considering how well Alec did last week at collegiate nationals.

Seeing Sandra also brought things back full circle to a moment 10 years ago, when I won the 2012 Queens in Texas.  

At that tournament, there was a pro-am before the tournament started. During that pro-am I met and bowled with this really sweet family from Texas – two kids and their parents. They just loved to bowl and through bowling together in that pro-am, we became friends. The next day, they came to watch me bowl. And the next day. And the next day. And literally every single ball that I threw, the little girl in the family, named Hope, was behind me. She was probably eight or nine at the time, and she was there every single frame I bowled. It felt so nice to turn around and see that whole family there, rooting for me. Especially because I was out there alone.

When I made it onto the TV show, I got them tickets for the show. They were there for every single shot I threw that event, I was going to be sure they were right behind me at the TV show. Then I won! I always retell that story as “the little girl named Hope who helped me win a major.”

Fast forward to today, and Hope Gramly is a superstar collegiate bowler, bowling for McKendree, where Shannon O’Keefe is the coach. Hope just won the NCAA National Championship with her team. She’s so good! I posted on my Instagram to congratulate them and I tagged her. She responded, thanking me for the support. In a text exchange, I told her how fun it was watching her bowl and that my whole family – all four of us – were rooting her on because I’d told them the story about how she and her family once stood behind me. She told me she remembered it like it was yesterday, and it is the reason she wants to go pro. I said I can’t wait to be behind her one day when she wins a major. With how talented she already is, it’s inevitable.

Hope will always have that Queens 2012 memory with me to hold on to just as I’ll always hold onto my interactions with Sandra Jo Shiery and Dana Miller Mackie. 

All of this has really reminded me that every interaction matters. I think it’s important to bring attention to that fact. It doesn’t even matter what level of bowling you’re at either. If somebody looks up to you in any way, your interaction matters. It’s about understanding and appreciating how whatever you’re doing might be influencing others.

Sandra and Dana inspired how I treat my career now, and they influenced how I interacted with Hope and her family. And I have no doubt that Hope will keep paying that inspiration forward when she’s on tour someday very soon!