Mindset
03 May 2021
I have been bullied in school.
A lot.
I got beat up in locker rooms for winning sporting events. Before I went to those games I was warned but didn’t care.
Other classes had lots of boys. I was in class with 6 boys and I was the smallest boy in that class.
I was in an advanced chemistry class; biology and chemistry were part of my everyday curriculum. My classmates became doctors; some are pretty famous.
So, when we had competitions we were often winning soccer and basketball games, but it always cost us afterward in the locker room.
The biggest beating I took was in 9th grade. We beat a team of 5 with only 3 people. We only had 6 boys in our class. They had 20 boys and everyone showed up for the game. We didn’t have one person cheering for us on the bench. When I was growing up, parents didn’t really come to watch their kids’ games.
We knew we would get murdered if we won, but we would also get to stand on the podium. The other team couldn’t do much on the court because of the judges and teachers, but in the locker room we were dead meat.
Looking back, I’d say it was worth every moment. Dried blood in my nose, rib pain, and humiliation served by the biggest bullies in school were worth winning that game.
Like I said, we had 6 boys in class. 3 didn’t show up because they didn’t want to deal with the circumstances. If they did, we probably would have taken first place.
You don’t have to be the biggest or have a big team to win. You just have to have it in your head that losing is not an option, no matter what; and I promise you: it’s all in your head. You can achieve anything you put your mind to.