He offers us a rundown of his academic schedule for the day: clay pottery sculpting in art class, another info-heavy session in biology, and then on to his favorite period at a nearby mechanic’s shop for automotive maintenance training. Kenyel enjoys working with his hands, whether inside a mitt on the field or in the general area of an intake manifold. He’s learning the shop’s safety rules and looks forward to the upcoming lesson on how to change brakes. “We’re going to learn how to take a motor apart and put it back together,” he says excitedly. “It’s going to be fun. I can’t wait.” We would expect nothing less from someone who sings the praises of The Fast and the Furious films.

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There’s power on the horizon for Kenyel, figurative and literal. He’s excited to follow the lead of his auntie, a journeyman electrician who has shown him the ropes of a lucrative career. Through her inspiration, he has developed a solid plan to become licensed as a master electrician and travel for work, and already has a particular destination in mind. Recently, he traveled to Texas with his father to visit family. A lifelong Mounds resident, he was pleasantly surprised at the prospects for fun and work in the Dallas era. After graduating and completing his electrician certification, he says he sees himself headed southward to chase down those experiences.

 

At present, Kenyel’s busy generating memories at Meridian that he’ll not easily forget. The art class field trip is in September, and he’s excited to visit St. Louis art museums and the Paint Louis graffiti festival. “I am definitely going to have some good memories of this place,” he says candidly. “It’s nice to me because I’ve been here my whole life, and people just look at our school like it’s a little old school and there’s nothing going on. There’s a lot going on.”

 

The memory that will linger the longest is Kenyel’s recollection of his middle school baseball team being reigned as regional champions years ago. The entirety of the season was an exercise in persistence. A sign that pledged to take the team to regionals hung in the dugout, and any player exiting the dugout gave it a mindful, consistent slap on their way out. In the final game, Kenyel made a game-changing play. One point up, two outs, and facing a runner on third who would carry the competition into an extra inning, he snatched the hope for a run out of the air from his second base post and sent his coach and entire team screaming in victory onto the field. He still has the prized ball at home, signed by every one of his teammates.

 

The positivity Kenyel dishes out with relative ease results from these robust moments Meridian has afforded him. It’s similar to that old proverb: Give a man a language arts lesson, and he’ll get through the day. Teach a man to speak the language of success, and he’ll get through what remains.