The Night Before The Narrative’s Due
I have the yellow hanging light plugged in and on. They give a yellow tint to the room. It makes you feel like you’re in a film processing lab. This is where I feel the most creative. I’ve always had a weird compulsion to colored lights. So, I always keep some hanging. I like blue ones especially but, in all reality, if I saw blue lights I’d probably go the other direction. That’s only if I didn’t hear them first. More importantly, it’s the night before the personal narrative rough draft is due in class.
I obviously haven’t thought of much either. My only thoughts are in the first paragraph. My phone glows and vibrates, a millennial can never ignore a notification. It’s my brother, Trevin. We’re at the point in life where you think you understand the world, and all you do is have tedious intellectual talks. I roll my eyes back over to the laptop screen. I’m in need of inspiring ideas. A quick chat wouldn’t hurt. My phone is unlocked before my eyes can gaze back across at it. I opened our conversation to read it.
“A lot of guys out here are new, but a lot of the U23 play with the Reserves now. Practice ended early because the field is so messed up, so I just did full field sprints until I died!” He texted. Trevin and I are both footballers, more commonly known as “soccer” in America. It’s our dream job under our disguise of average aspirations. We’ve wanted that dream job since we could remember dreaming. Trevin has been teamless recently, and fortunately just finished attending practice with our previous club, Georgia Revolution. “You’re gonna make it bro!” I replied. He immediately hit me back. “Already did, Coach Alec says the U23 roster is full, so I can play for U21 squad and train with both teams!” My fingers are tapping my phone at rapid fire speed. I’m loading up my message bubble with about twenty fire emojis. I send them expeditiously. This is what we call colossal news! Our life talk last month was about how the exact opposite had happened.
Close to a month ago, the time was about half past eight on a Friday night and I’m in my room. Message from JACK. I don’t quite remember why I changed Trevin’s contact name to JACK. “Nick, I am completely screwed. I won’t be playing for the Revs this fall.” Trevin texted me. Little do people know, Trevin actually works harder than me. No matter how far I go, he is willing to push it a little bit further extending both of our limits. Now he’s going to have to miss the opportunity he had been working harder than me for. I instantly replied. “How could this have possibly happened?” I’m anxiously staring at his typing bubble anticipating what he’d message back. “Well, one of the roster spots Alec promised me is now taken. So that leaves me teamless again for the rest of this year.” He replied with a sad emoji. “It’s all his fault!” He added. “If Alec could keep his word, I would have a team to play for.” Trevin had just broken my number one rule.
You should never, under any circumstances blame anyone else for where you are in life. You have total control of your life and you can accomplish anything. The main thing is you have to depend on yourself. If you don’t, you’ll fall into someone else’s plans and they usually don’t have much planned for you. “Trevin! Get the idea that this is someone else’s job to fix your problems out of your head right now! Yes what happened is unfortunate, but sadly, unfortunate events happen often. You’ll have to toughen up and realize the path of success always starts off uphill. The path always has the cold winds going against it. Lastly, you’ll seldom see other people on the same path, so there’s no one but yourself to rely on.” I responded. I feel like a lot of people don’t realize the root of all their problems is themselves.
Back to present day, Trevin’s news is very uplifting. Before I sat down to finalize my draft, I was listening to one of my favorite speakers Jim Rohn on the subject of self-development. Rohn suggests that to get what you want in life, you have to develop yourself into someone suitable for that lifestyle. You aren’t where you want to be because you don’t fit the role. Success is looking for a nice place to stay, so prepare yourself and your life for success. I messaged Trevin again. “Let’s just do something. Do something no one would ever think possible. Just to show it can happen,” I said. “No more excuses. Let’s go pro!” I added. “We’re already pro. The contracts just haven’t been drawn up yet.” He replied with an a-ok emoji. This is why I consider him my brother even though we aren’t related. We think alike. You have to have this type of mindset to achieve great things. I have to surround myself with more people like him. I thought to myself.
The routine: One and a half miles a day only resting on Sundays, half a mile jog on game days, five-hundred passes a day minimum, one-hundred shots a day minimum, one-hundred and twenty-five push-ups a day, one-hundred sit ups a day, and two-hundred squats a day minimum. Routine continued: Track our speed and strength increases and keep a journal of what happened at training. How did I feel? What has improved? What can I improve on? Take our diets more seriously (no more honey buns), for thirty day increments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0RSzTjmXqA (training link)
After reading the routine Trevin replied, “If this doesn’t work, we were destined to be rappers.” I laughed and responded, “Alright. This is it. If we both agree to this it will become our new lives.” I really think people overcomplicate life. It all comes down to the choices you make. Your life can literally be whatever you set your mind to. You say the words and follow up with actions and boom, your life has changed. The hardest part is commitment. Trevin messaged me back about five minutes later, “I’m down man. I’m ready for our lives to take off.” At this point I’m exhausted, it’s about 10:45 pm and I just wrote an essay and changed my life all within a few hours. I’m finally in bed but I feel restless. I guess it’s because tomorrow morning, I start my new life.
