The above picture was taken after a wrestling tournament back in 2016 where my team came in second. Now most people in the coaching world would wonder why a runner up finish would render someone so happy. Well a little context to the photo: the team I coach was my high school team a team that I help start. This team was in it’s tenth season and had not had a lot of team success up to this season. This particular season we were able to punch through the glass ceiling of our conference winning the team title for the first time. Now, when we went into this tournament we had one of the top teams in our area (and the state) who ended up winning the tournament by 110 points over second place (us). Considering how far the team was able to get in one season and how little we were expected to succeed in the season, there was a lot of excitement within our team.
As a person, I cannot express how important it is to find aspects of life that make you excited. I’m talking 8 year old on Christmas morning excited. Some facet of life that for a little bit makes you forget about the trials and tribulations you could be experiencing at the time. This may come in the form of a hobby, a trip you take, some news you learn of, or anything else that causes extreme joy. Releasing those endorphins and increasing the levels of serotonin and dopamine is vastly important to your existence on this planet. Too much bad news or negativity can zap a person of their sense of humanity and wonder. Keeping something in your life that makes you excited or gets you fired up is what I believe makes you the most human. As someone who is writing this the day before “Hamilton” goes on Disney+ (I talk about my theatre obsession A little bit here), you better believe I’m excited to be back in the room where it happens!
There’s nothing wrong with losing yourself in the moment and allowing pure exhilaration to take over. Find those moments of joy and hold on to them dearly!
Your First Black Friend 