My Story when a Neighbor asked for it:
My Story for a neighbor who asked what I do:
I’ve contemplated often lately why I do what I do. I do so because I love it. It is the childhood spirit in me which drives me. Yes, it is a child’s game, yet yes, I want to preserve the childhood innocence of my youth. The love of play. I play because I love it. I didn’t sell out. I was true to my boyhood dream and I didn’t change for anyone. This has made all the difference. I love what I do. I measure my growth. I firmly believe a life and love of labor is a life worth living. Nothing else fulfills me. I am a baller. The baller life chose me. I remember thinking this is what I am. I chose nothing. This is what I am and therefore I do it. Perhaps I’m fortunate in that sense yet it is all I know and all I want to do. I love it therefore I do it. It’s simple. There’s a harmony when I play. A balance and all is right in the world. I play for the pursuit of this balance. Nothing else matters. Others know this feeling, I see it when I speak to someone in a field where they truly love what they do. I love love, and the world could use more of it. I play and do what I am and what I’ve grown to do. Play. Harmony. Win. At some point in time everyone experiences politics, bullshit, gets punished as a result of some kind of imbalance in the universe. An unfairness where they’re punished unjustly. This is simply a test, and it happens to everyone invariably at some point during their journey. How you overcome these tests is everything. What you do in these moments of adversity determines your leveling up at the next stage of your development. It is a challenge everyone faces, and until your character evolves past it, you do not progress. Such are the growing pains of life. You overcome them and you win. They best you and you lose OR you conquer, evolve, and win. It’s this simple. I am a winner.
What does it mean to be a disruptive athlete? People often strive for innovation. A recreation of similar ideals, repackaged, repurposed, and regurgitated as something new and necessary for purchase at an extremely low price. The reality is disruptors have courage. They’re bold in vision, in thought, and execution. They see things not as they are, but as they could be, and they have the fortitude, the mental strength, and the persistence to work until things are so. Ultimately, at the end of it all what were they after? What were they striving for? For many no doubt, the answer is justice. A deep seated anger at exploitation fills, motivates, and advances a number of athletes. They desire to harness the drive, the anger, and the passion pushing them from a young age to persevere the obstacles. To overcome the headaches, the physical pain, and the hurdles to reach specific goals. It becomes all consuming. A recurring thought continues to come to me as a write these words. A life needn’t be long to be meaningful. The life and the career of an athlete often resembles a sprint. Not unlike the life of rockstars, actors, and those in public life. They play to perform a role, to enact a violent drama for the consumption of paying fans. Once the drama ends the players must move on, and new players take their place encouraging the creation of new narratives, new heroes, and new villains. Myself, I don’t know that I’m struggling much with my transition from playing in so far as I’ve maxed out my physical, emotional, and relational capital to the pursuit of a specific goal. I have the love of a lovely woman. The comfort of a supportive group of friends and memories I’ll maintain, appreciate and persist for a long time as no one can take them away from me.
