Many people despair about Bermuda's youth, given reports of poor education, rising violence, gangs and the like.

But the reality is that many of Bermuda's young people do remarkably well. It is often the five to ten percent who make their peers look bad. Still, even five or ten percent is unacceptable, and thus it is especially heartening to hear and read stories about young people who turn their lives around.

One such story concerns Nikki Bascome, who was featured in Tuesday's Sport section.

Mr. Bascome recently returned from a tournament in the US where he won a gold medal in boxing. That's no small achievement.

But five years ago, he was an underachieving student who was one of the main strugglers at a school for struggling students – the Educational Centre or TEC.

But thanks to a dedicated teacher, an eye-opening trip to Cuba where he saw students with far less than most young Bermudians working hard and the supervision of boxing trainer Allan (Forty) Rego and Quinn Mallory, Mr. Bascome has turned his life around.

Through boxing, he has found meaning for his life, and it is to be hoped that the discipline necessary in boxing will help him in life as well. Movies are based on stories like Nikki Bascome, because their stories of triumphing over the odds are inspiring. But in real life, our goal needs to be to make people like Mr. Bascome the rule rather than the exception.