By Steve Ritchie
Brian Meissner discovered early in life that having a goal is a powerful thing.
At age 14, he was a self-described couch potato – seriously overweight and unhappy with himself.
Meissner decided to do something about it, and set a goal of running every day to lose weight. When he first started, he struggled to run even one block.
He stayed with it, but progress was slow. He worked up to a mile, but it took him 15 minutes to run it, a pace not much more than a fast walk.
Meissner refused to give up. Gradually, he was able to run much farther and faster.
Friends and acquaintances began to report seeing Meissner running the back roads from his home in Mt. Angel to Gervais or Woodburn.
The pounds began to melt away. Over the course of a year, he dropped 100 pounds. Today he is a trim 180. He also found that he had more energy and he started to do better in high school.
That experience gave Meissner tremendous confidence in his ability to realize his goals.
Now 24, he has already accomplished some amazing things. He has run two marathons, climbed Mt. Hood, learned to speak Japanese and served his country for six years in the National Guard.
He continues to run an hour and a half “every single day” to keep the weight off and maintain good health.
Meissner’s newest goal?
“I want to make the world a better place,” he said.
Currently living at home in Mt. Angel and enrolled at Chemeketa Community College, Meissner’s world view has broadened considerably since he graduated from Kennedy High School in 2004.
He is taking classes to become a teacher of English as a Second Language and he continues to study Japanese. He plans to finish college at Portland State University and at a university in Japan, where he wants to eventually teach ESL.
Meissner also hopes to do volunteer work in developing countries where poverty is widespread and opportunities for young people are lacking.
He has been inspired in this regard by working as a tutor with international students at Chemeketa.
“International students are great. They are really fun to work with . . . It has been my first actual teaching experience and I have enjoyed it,” Meissner said.
His parents, Terri and Dennis Meissner, have for many years hosted foreign exchange students from Asia who attend Kennedy High School. Getting to know them, as well as the many international students at Chemeketa, has given Meissner an appreciation for the value of international politics and diplomacy.
“I am not concerned just about the interests of the U.S. (in the world) anymore. I care also about what is going on in Japan, what is going on in Korea and what is going on in Vietnam,” he said.
Meissner views teaching, along with politics, as a viable way for him to make a difference in the world.
“I believe that in the western world we have made strides toward having a world without war . . . To get into teaching is really, really important because I can teach kids language they can use to communicate with one another, and communication is (ultimately) the basis of diplomacy,” he said.
His service in the Oregon National Guard has also been a major influence on his life.
Unlike some of his peers, who reported that money, educational assistance and travel were their primary motivations in joining the Oregon National Guard, Meissner joined simply because of the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Horrified by the loss of life in that tragedy, he said, “I wanted to do my part to prevent something like that from ever happening again – 9/11 has been a big part of my life.”
Meissner credits the military with teaching him how to work hard.
“I learned my ethics of hard work in the military. They were always pushing me to more than I thought I could – I actually made the National Guard running team and was able to compete in national races and marathons.”
In his most recent marathon held in Lincoln, Neb., Brian placed third in his age group with a time of 3 hours, 30 minutes for the 26.2 mile race.
As challenging as the marathon is, however, Meissner says climbing Mt. Hood was “harder than running a marathon – It was the hardest thing I have done in my life.”
On his climb, he said the boots were “really terrible,” and trekking on the steep, icy slopes prompted many people in his group to abandon the climb before reaching the top.
Though he reached the top in a state of total exhaustion, he made it.
Meissner has learned accomplishing a goal requires the will to start, and the discipline to persevere.
