For the best possible experience, play this song while reading!
A recent blog post inspired me to write this, but I didn't want to just post it in there because this is too much about me and not very related to the point of the thread.
Rudy: the story of a small town and small bodied young man whose dream to play on the Notre Dame football team manifested into reality after prolonged struggle and perseverance.
I think this is a very inspiring story. I actually went through something in my experience in football that left somewhat of a bad taste in my mouth, but has shaped a lot of who I am today.
For some reason, I had it in my head that I was going to play football, so I joined the freshman high school team after having no experience. Not just any team, but an extremely prestigious team that had been undefeated for 8 years or so and had won many state championships. After conditioning for the entire summer, the first day we put on pads for tackle drills, an idiot speared my hand holding the football with his helmet and broke it. I sat out of practice, watching, for a couple months until it was time for me to get back onto the field.
My very first practice back, in a freak accident, a guy fell on top of my leg after tackling me and broke it. No one gave me any sympathy; at this point, I had a reputation for being a wuss because the coaches had, for some reason, convinced the players that I was making up my hand injury. So when I broke my leg, instead of helping me get to a hospital, I was left on the grass to hop on one leg to the nearest pay phone, which was at least 1/4 of a mile away.
A sane person would have quit at this point, but instead I diligently lifted weights throughout the spring and joined the team again the next summer. I had to deal with an insane (literally) parent who would restrict me from going to football practice as a punishment throughout the season, continued to be bombarded with insults by my teammates, but I managed to get through the season. I gained the self confidence that I can accomplish almost anything, which has carried with me since then. I suppose the fictional Rudy must have felt the same thing.
Once my coach went off on a monologue, saying how "fired up" he was whenever he watched the story of Rudy, and everyone happily agreed. For at least 50 people to watch the fictional portrayal of Rudy's struggle and be fired up but not even recognize that one among their own had a lot in common with Rudy's story, but instead treat them exactly (or worse) than Rudy's teammates treated him, shows that the emotions many people experience when watching this movie are, well, fictional.
I implore all of you to look around you and recognize someone who has gone through immense struggle to be where they are. I would also love to hear some of your own struggles and how you emerged victorious.
I think it's a terrible idea to stay in an abusive relationship just to prove you can tough it out; switching to a different pursuit and being a baller in that would've been a better call.
On July 30 2010 09:06 Severedevil wrote: I think it's a terrible idea to stay in an abusive relationship just to prove you can tough it out; switching to a different pursuit and being a baller in that would've been a better call.
But props for resilience.
That's what I ended up doing in the end. I now spend my time in things that are better suited, or I have more "natural talent" in, as I am now in grad school studying computer science, but I often encounter situations where the resilience I developed (or prove that I had) back then has greatly benefited me, such as having to devote every hour of the day for weeks on end to getting a paper done, etc.
First of all, good job for sticking with what you've decided to pursue. Regardless of difficulty, I believe one should show perseverance instead of giving up halfway in whatever field they choose, even if it's not going to be something they do as a career or major hobby. In something like sports, it is especially difficult to surpass certain gaps due to the additional factor of physical traits, amongst other things. The fact that you must condition yourself hardcore just to compete at the physical level (not even talking about skill yet), you're going to deal with that additional burden.
However, even in sports, mentality is the key. There's nothing you can do about the fact that you're the shortest guy on the team, or the fact that genetics blessed (cursed) you with a nerd's body, but you can always play the mind game against your opponent(s). I've always thought that even if Michael Jordan was 6 inches shorter, he would still have been a legend.
Again, congrulations for sticking to the path despite bumps and bruises. Don't worry, what you've learned there will carry over to the other things you do in life and likely help you find success.
God man I love stories like this. I ran in high school and was always really slow, started with 8:30 miles lolol and a 30 minute 5k ><. But I really wanted to be a runner so I did every season I could long distance and slowly trained for more and more distance.
By the end of 2.5 years of training I was still JV level slow running 19 minute 5k's but I was running the same distances as the varsity (6-8 a day, 10-14 saturdays). It was an amazing ride and taught me a lot about perseverance that I see some of my friends lacking =(. Idk about football, but the sheer joy of pushing yourself further and further into pain, with all systems failing on a swelteringly hot run, forcing yourself through your personal barriers was also fun. and the intensity/brotherhood of the team helped me a lot (hiding injuries and captain's meetings to get past practice restrictions, good times).
After summer before junior year though, I knew I would make varsity by the time I graduated, because I was really catching up to these kids who entered doing 20minutes and ran 18minute 5ks after 2 seasons (I was rounding out my 7th!). But finally I was doing all their distances! I did an amazing 14 mile run with the varsity and kept pace with a buddy who had recently joined the team from crew and it was the most I have ever physically pushed myself, but it felt so good. Unfortunately, I got a stressfracture in my foot as the season started x.x and I was out for 2 seasons as it didn't heal and I had to get surgery...
Senior year I ran on the team for fun and glory but I knew I wasn't coming back to real shape. I finished out the cross country season and got an honorary varsity letter for holding on all those seasons. I still remember my coach finding out that I had a bunch of injuries/problems in the middle of the season and saying, "damn, david. if I could take your heart and put it in any of these kids I would have a top varsity runner." Really validated my efforts, and I'll always be glad I ran cross country.
(plus I ended up with a 6pack and ginormous quads after being a really chubby frumpy middleschooler. woot!)
EPT
