2/12/22 Wise Words From Our Captain To His Younger Teammates?

     I thought there was real maturity in Baby A yesterday when he was telling us about the Regional Meet, and his encounters.  He sounded a bit funny when he started with "I thought I was just going to enjoy some wrestling and hanging out with my team, I didn't know I was going to be counseling and going into therapy sessions with some of these guys."  The two boys that did get to wrestle got in on a technicality, the lighter weight one had only four boys in his bracket last week, so they all qualified, since 4 wrestlers per weight class move on.  The other kid which was also a lightweight class, maybe 138, was an alternate, he came in 5th, but one of the top four did not wrestle, so he slid in.  Both these boys had maybe 2 wins total all season, so they were very amateur, and should have probably been on JV, but I guess sometimes you get thrown in the fire early.

    Mijo was then trying to explain that for their first season they had done good.  They had both participated, learned, had fun, and knew what to expect for next season.  The lighter weight class kid insisted that he was no good, that he wanted to at least win more, and be more like him.  It gets hard here Mijo was saying that he wishes they had seen him learning last year, he was basically just a punching bag for the Senior kid who went to State.  He learned what he learned by getting thrown in the deep end and surviving or quitting on his own.  Mijo said something that I wish more people could realize "don't look at me in the middle of my growth an expect to be where I am at."  Everyone goes at their own speed.

     I told him that is good advice for life.  This people that hate on someone who seems successful, and I am sure people might see what we have and think we have had it easy all our lives were not there when I was driving a forklift my first year out of college for $8 an hour working a minimum of 60 hours.  They never saw Wife working as a telemarketer, and us sharing a car the first few months when she came up to Austin and some jackass decided to break her car window to steal her radio.  They just see us today living in a big house, living comfortably and assuming it has always been this way.  The path for Wife to get where she is at as a director was paved by us sacrificing together so she could go to school and get her master's degree and subsequent certifications.  The truth is we all start somewhere and hopefully, if we have done our work and have a strong base, we will move upwards slowly, but every time you look back, you will see that you are progressing.  Never compare your efforts to those of others, everyone is on a different path.  Those that want to be jealous of other's successes, I wish could take a step back and see where that person they want to hate on where they really started.