Dear Dr. Wall,

Where to begin a letter that carries with it such warmth and good fellowship, not to mention appreciation and congratulations at the accomplishments that you brought forth from us; your merry ‘lads’.

I have been carefully considering the tone this letter should take, but the emotion that consistently rises to the surface on this my fifth draft is CONFIDENCE.  By this I mean the astonishment that I felt at so quickly shedding the gruff prison exterior personality for that of a giraffe … or a queen [Robert was a MAGNIFICENT Margaret of Anjou] … or the unwitting husband of a cross-dressing Rosalind.

But how did this unlikely transformation occur so quickly?  The answer is YOU, sir, and the steady guidance and tutelage that drew us, the lads, out of our closely guarded and safe ‘shells’, if you will.  Without you as a mentor to constantly instil within each of us the confidence that the tasks we were undertaking would ultimately lead to so many proud accomplishments, a great number of us would have been quick to quit and retreat to the mundane, ‘inopportunistic’ safety of our ‘shells’.  

Not every man who participated in your historic programme will become a great Shakespearean actor, but exemplified by the skills of dramatic audacity and bravado we learned, many of our life’s tasks will become easier by previous comparison.   More importantly, many ideas, goals and dreams will no longer carry the stigma of difficulty or fear of failure that they once did for every man in that room.  Now we will grasp that part of each of us that will allow us to take ourselves to greater heights than we could have ever previously hoped.

So, on behalf of the lads, I congratulate you on your perseverance, tenacity and dedicated motivation to build that confidence within us all.

I can pay a man no greater compliment on this earth.  So, God bless you.

Yours sir …. TRULY!!
Robert