Mike has always liked people. Even when his only exposure to them was watching them from afar, either via the television or from the shadows of a nearby alley or storm drain. And of all of the people he's watched children have been hands down his favorites. There was just something so raw, so honest, so ... human about them. He was always impressed with how they moved about in a world that was clearly not designed for them, but that they would come to inherit with time. In those few years...children weren't all that different from him, or he from them. It was a nice feeling while it lasted.

So when the opportunity came to help out at the dojo Mike jumped at the chance to work with kids. His lessons in self defense were games, and his gymnastics basics were couched in terms of elaborate obstacle courses that he'd set up and run with anyone who wanted to race.

The door was always open.