Among the pine trees and the blue lakes of the Upper Peninsula, along the trail physics teacher John Morrison was hiking with fellow teachers Robert Zynda and Trevor Smith, something was out of place.

“When we went backpacking, he carried, like, five pounds of goldfish,” Zynda said. “And to lighten his load, there were actually outhouses out on the trail and if you went in and used the outhouse after he had been in there and looked down, it was filled with goldfish. It’s like everywhere he went he left a trail of goldfish.”

Morrison has been backpacking and hiking in places such as Isle Royale and Pictured Rocks. He enjoys it despite the health issues he has dealt with for the majority of his life.

At age seven, Morrison was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, requiring him to take doses of insulin throughout the day to regulate his blood sugar.

“I’ve had to inject insulin into me ever since I was seven,” Morrison said. “Now they do it with insulin pumps, and it just puts in a little bit of insulin.”

Along with having diabetes, he was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Morrison’s case is very rare; he is one of 100 million to be diagnosed with both Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

“Sometimes my nerves are always firing and I can’t control it,” Morrison said. “Once again you go to the doctor and the doctor gives you [medicine] to keep you as healthy as they can.”

Despite his health troubles, Mr. Morrison draws inspiration and motivation from a former student who had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy but refused to let his illness get in the way of his everyday life. It made Morrison realize everyone has problems and is going through something.

“Somebody that’s about 24 years old is my hero,” Morrison said with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Morrison lends the same type of motivation to his own students.

“He will always help you no matter what,” junior Sydney Hyatt said. “I’m happy I stayed in [his class] because he makes me enjoy physics and I’m enjoying his class.”

Before discovering that he wanted to become a physics teacher, Morrison majored in mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona, and though he did not like the classwork, he enjoyed the jobs that came with it. After graduating from college and marrying his wife, he had two children, Jamie and Sean. During the children’s early years, he continued to work as an engineer, but between his and his wife’s work, it was difficult to manage everything.

“I worked for one of my vendors where I was the sole engineer,” Morrison said. “My wife was the store manager for Kmart, and we didn’t organize our lives well.”

As a result, he decided to retire and stay home with his kids. His wife was given the opportunity to manage a bigger store and the family moved to Los Angeles. After his youngest child was old enough to enroll in kindergarten, he went back to work, taking jobs such as doing taxes and substitute teaching. This is how he stumbled upon his passion for education. After working as a substitute teacher, Morrison decided he wanted to be a physics teacher so he went Oakland University to receive a degree in physics.

For more than 18 years, he has been teaching at Troy High.

“He’s fun, energetic and always seems to be one with his students,” junior Quinn Kelly said. “He always tries to understand.”