1. This first one makes me think about when I was a participating athlete, especially in high school, and also as a coach. The first two situations happened to me as an athlete. I was a freshman in high school and was hanging around with the “other” crowd, the gang that smoked cigs and pot and looked for more parties than anything else. Some of my “jock” friends told me to come to a match, and I did. I walked out, threw my cigs away, and joined the wrestling team the next day. I didn’t win a match that year until my very last match, when I was brought up to the JV at the end of the year. The second one was when I was a senior and playing football. I could only play my junior and senior years due to injuries. I worked hard to try and get a starting spot. After a scrimmage where I thought I had done poorly, I told my dad I was going to quit and concentrate on wrestling (I was captain my Senior year). He told me to hang in a little longer, see if I get playing time, and then decide. When the depth charts were put up the next day, I was the starting defensive end, but I was no longer on offense. In both these experiences, I had to do a lot of hard work to compete. Time and sacrifice. From these experiences, I learned perseverance, sticktoitiveness, and personal success. In my coaching world, I once had an athlete who wanted to be a State Champ, but every Christmas break, the family left on a ski trip, and then his second half of the season was not nearly as good as the start. When I finally convinced him to stay home that year, he won the State Title.
2. When my brother Tim and his wife decided to take their young daughter out of school and travel, it was just irresponsible in my eyes at that time. I learned to support the idea, and it took a little time. This was more on a personal judgment level, but eventually, I saw that if you had the time and the ability to do such a thing, why not? This week, my niece graduates from the Maryland Institute of Art with her Master's, and my brother and his wife work and live aboard and have a wonderful life.
3. I might just be crazy. I feel that I have “suffered slings and arrows” and been “knocked down” several different times in my life. My battle with my alcoholism was certainly a point where I had to use all the things I had learned before about perseverance and resilience, mostly through my sporting experiences. I had lost a career, but I couldn’t sit and say poor me, or be any more of a victim than needed, I made choices. It is through my AA experience that I have learned more and better ways to cope when things don’t go the way I want them to. I use all of these lessons today to help me face adversity or setbacks.
4. Well, this is an interesting one because there are people who see me as an artist and creative, along with my jock side, and many of them have been strong supporters of my next endeavor no matter what that might be. There are friends, old and new; there are people from my AA life and people from my academic life, like you. All support learning and growth.
1. This first one makes me think about when I was a participating athlete, especially in high school, and also as a coach. The first two situations happened to me as an athlete. I was a freshman in high school and was hanging around with the “other” crowd, the gang that smoked cigs and pot and looked for more parties than anything else. Some of my “jock” friends told me to come to a match, and I did. I walked out, threw my cigs away, and joined the wrestling team the next day. I didn’t win a match that year until my very last match, when I was brought up to the JV at the end of the year. The second one was when I was a senior and playing football. I could only play my junior and senior years due to injuries. I worked hard to try and get a starting spot. After a scrimmage where I thought I had done poorly, I told my dad I was going to quit and concentrate on wrestling (I was captain my Senior year). He told me to hang in a little longer, see if I get playing time, and then decide. When the depth charts were put up the next day, I was the starting defensive end, but I was no longer on offense. In both these experiences, I had to do a lot of hard work to compete. Time and sacrifice. From these experiences, I learned perseverance, sticktoitiveness, and personal success. In my coaching world, I once had an athlete who wanted to be a State Champ, but every Christmas break, the family left on a ski trip, and then his second half of the season was not nearly as good as the start. When I finally convinced him to stay home that year, he won the State Title.
2. When my brother Tim and his wife decided to take their young daughter out of school and travel, it was just irresponsible in my eyes at that time. I learned to support the idea, and it took a little time. This was more on a personal judgment level, but eventually, I saw that if you had the time and the ability to do such a thing, why not? This week, my niece graduates from the Maryland Institute of Art with her Master's, and my brother and his wife work and live aboard and have a wonderful life.
3. I might just be crazy. I feel that I have “suffered slings and arrows” and been “knocked down” several different times in my life. My battle with my alcoholism was certainly a point where I had to use all the things I had learned before about perseverance and resilience, mostly through my sporting experiences. I had lost a career, but I couldn’t sit and say poor me, or be any more of a victim than needed, I made choices. It is through my AA experience that I have learned more and better ways to cope when things don’t go the way I want them to. I use all of these lessons today to help me face adversity or setbacks.
4. Well, this is an interesting one because there are people who see me as an artist and creative, along with my jock side, and many of them have been strong supporters of my next endeavor no matter what that might be. There are friends, old and new; there are people from my AA life and people from my academic life, like you. All support learning and growth.
Two concussions and a broken rib. Aurora is already tougher than I am! Congrats to all of you for pulling it all together!