Former WCW and WWE wrestling champion Marc Mero offered presentations for students during the day and an evening presentation for parents and community members on Wednesday, September 9, at Newtown High School.

The Newtown Parent Connection, Newtown Prevention Council, and the NHS PTSA arranged the presentations, which shared a message of hope and inspiration.

Mr Mero is also the founder of Champion of Choices, which has a mission to empower students to make healthy and positive choices that will lead to lifelong success, initiating personal and social change to make a difference in themselves and their communities, according to its website, thinkpoz.org. Mr Mero is also the author of the book, How to be the Happiest Person on the Planet.

Newtown Middle School eighth graders made their way into the high school’s gymnasium on September 9 for a special visit to the school to see Mr Mero’s presentation.

Mr Mero told the students he was going to share stories from his life and explain how choices he made helped him realize the importance of writing down his dreams and making goals.

When he was 10 years old, Mr Mero said he wrote down his dreams in a dream book for the first time: Someday, he wanted a speed boat and he wanted to be a professional athlete. Mr Mero explained when his parents divorced, his mother’s heart broke. It was the first hardship Mr Mero said he faced in his life.

When he was younger, Mr Mero said he believed money and success would lead to happiness, but now he knows happiness is the key to success.

Holding up a copy of his book, Mr Mero said writing the book would not have been possible without a Post-It note on his desk that reminded him daily of his goal to write a book.

“I’m challenging every student here,” Mr Mero said, before asking each student to write down their own dreams and goals. “The more you see your dreams and goals the more likely you are to take action on them and be accountable.”

But before he wrote his book and before he became a professional wrestler, Mr Mero said he made a number of choices that did not lead him down the right path. After he needed surgery on his nose, Mr Mero said he took a year off wrestling. One year turned into ten years of drug and alcohol abuse, until he remembered all the things he had written in his dream book when he was 10 years old.

“We become who we surround ourselves with,“ said Mr Mero, adding that he hung out with losers and became the “biggest loser of them all.”

Now that he travels all over the world sharing his story, Mr Mero said he realizes how big of an impact people have on one another.

When Mr Mero was 30 he was at a friend’s house when the channel on the television landed on professional wrestling, and he thought, “I can do that.”

At 31 Mr Mero said he signed a contract that led him by buy his mother a house and a speed boat that he had dreamed about since he was younger. But, despite all the expensive purchases, Mr Mero said he had never felt more empty.

“Because of my bad choices, I lost it all,” said Mr Mero.

Mr Mero overdosed on drugs on three occasions, he told the students, and lost a number of his friends to drugs. Now he believes he was kept alive for a reason, so some students might be helped from hearing about his story.

Before telling the students to take advantage of the time they have with their families, Mr Mero shared how his sister, brother, and mother have died.

“Why couldn’t I have been a better brother? Choices,” Mr Mero said.

Mr Mero stressed the importance of the students surrounding themselves with the right people and telling their family members how much they are are needed.

If a family member smokes cigarettes, Mr Mero told the students to, “Just tell them how much you need them.”

Mr Mero said he is now the happiest person because he has learned how precious life is and how quickly loved ones can be taken away.

“Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning,” Mr Mero said.

Since he started taking action on his dreams and goals, Mr Mero said he has been making the right choices in his life.

Mr Mero said he has been traveling to speak at schools for nine years, and he gets goal cards now from students who have achieved their goals. He also receives cards from students that share information that breaks his heart, about loneliness and hardships. Mr Mero said he wants students who may be suffering to know that there are people that care about them.

“Nobody can help you until you talk to someone about it,” said Mr Mero, who added he especially feels for students who are bullied, as he was once bullied in school.

Now, with social media available to students, Mr Mero said he can see how students are further challenged.

“Words can kill,” Mr Mero said. “You never know what another student is going through.”

Mr Mero said it is time to come together as a school, family, and community and stand up against bullying.

He concluded his presentation to the eighth graders by stressing the importance of goals and choices.

“It’s not where you are right now, Newtown,” Mr Mero said. “It’s where you’re going.”