Okay, firsrtly, I want to give a little introduction to my story. For some, this may be necessary for the story's meaning. This post seems really long and is kinda slow at the beginning, but bear through it- It's got a very good message.
My football coach always talks about how he doesn't care who's strong or who's fastest, he cares about who's the toughest. He always says that he'd rather coach tough people because you can never win with cowards. He's actually got a great point. Being strong doesn't make you tough and being weak doesn't make you a coward.
He also always says that people who try picking fights around people of higher authority makes you more of a coward because if you try to pick a fight around teachers or a principal, then you know it's going to be broken up and you won't get hurt but still present the illusion of being strong and fearless.
To make a good team, we wanted to make sure he was putting in the toughest players. The way he determined who was tough was by putting us into 'combatives.' Basically they are situations were we're pitted one on one to compete in boxing, wrestling, hose wrestling, arm wrestling.. He knows we aren't in boxing classes or wrestling classes so he evaluates us on how hard we go at it. Some people this is easy to tell because they'd take a beating and keep going and that's who Coach wants on his team.
Anyways, about 3 weeks ago an old friend of mine turned sour all of a sudden and started being mean to me. I have no clue why. He would randomly hit the back of my helmet with his whenever I was taking a break from practice- He would call me names and tell me how bad I was at football. One day, during spring ball (four weeks of football practice at 6 before school), he decided to start telling me how bad I was while we were practicing. I am a defensive tackle and he is a center so we compete against each other. I was kicking his but and the offense had to redo a play four times in a row because I kept getting past him to the quarterback. This made him even more mad at me because he knew he was wrong. Anyways, times got harder, and he got meaner, and the entire time I just took it. I never did anything back or give in because I knew he was trying to start a pointless fight. People kept telling me things like, "Dude, why are you letting him push you around? Kick his butt." They often used more expressional language, though. Haha. Within the last week, after spring ball ended, it still was getting worse. I really hate him. I do. He treated me like crap and he talked bad about my girlfriend, whom I am deeply in love with, by calling her fat and ugly whenever she's beautiful. I just ignored it. Yesterday, he threw something at me in study hall from across the room because someone around me threw something at him and he thought it was me. He threw like 10 things at me and missed every time and was talking crap about me. Again, I just took it and never gave in to fighting. Of course, with any bully, this made him even more angry. At the beginning of practice, whenever we were going into the locker room to change, he was waiting for me and hit me with this big pad thing. It didn't hurt because how soft it is but did mess up my glasses. I was pretty mad. I got it from him and started swinging it so that he would leave me alone and it worked. After practice when we were changing back into our regular, school cloths, he started throwing stuff at me again. I dodged the stuff every time and didn't think much of it because I knew he was just trying to start a fight. I was just staring off into space while changing cloths and he decided to start yelling from across our dressing room, "Hey, stop looking at me." It's pretty loud in there so I just ignored him but he kept saying it. Eventually, he got up and started walking towards me saying stuff like, "Stop staring at me." and, "What's your problem?" Of course I'm going to look at him now, he's talking to me and walking up to me. Whenever he got to me he told me not to look at him but I just stared at him expressionless. He continued saying not to stare at him and that he was going to hit me. I just started laughing and said, "Do you really think that's a good reason to fight someone?" and turned away. I really didn't want to fight him because he was my friend a while back I hoped that he could just stop being a bully and come to his senses. The other reason is that I always say there is a time and place for fighting. This was not. Someone was going to get seriously hurt. This was no situation to fight for and there wasn't a real reason why he even started acting this way. People were mad at me for not hitting him and they told me I could have easily beaten him up. I know I could have, too. That's what really hurt me.
This past week we were told that we were going to box sometime this week or next week. They posted up who we were boxing this morning and I've got the kid that's been giving me trouble. I was excited and a little scared because he is pretty strong and about four inches taller than me. This was my chance. This was the time to fight. This is the time we could fight and not be penalized for it. I would finally show him how much of a man he is.
We boxed later that day. He talked crap about me and I simply ignored it. The way we box, anyone can come and spectate in the school because it's on the football field in a big circle in the middle. Everyone stands outside of the circle except the head football coach. There's a few trainers that watch us just in case someone gets knocked unconscious. (This has happened a few times.) You start at the whistle and end at the whistle. Occasionally, there's an extra swing or two after but they aren't intensional because it's pretty hard to hear the whistle. The matches usually go for about 30 seconds to a minute. We were in the middle of the matches so I watched many and some were pretty good. My friend beat the heck out of one kid and nearly knocked him out. Another 'bully' had to box a kid and looked like he was knocked unconscious but actually was still standing dazing into space. But, we were next. I never lost a boxing match despite my lack in boxing skill or knowledge and despite the matches all being nearly equally matched. I knew I was going to win. I had to. I quickly prayed and watched as the match before ours ended. We got out to the middle of the circle, touched gloves, stepped back, the whistle blew, and I charged at him and threw all of my weight into the first punch and hit him. Everyone was cheering. For the first 10 seconds we were about even but then I started getting face shots left and right and over and over again. This had been the longest match that I've been in. Left and right I was getting him good. Of course, he got a few hits on me. Nothing compared to what I did to him. About 30 seconds into it he swung and I ducked and stepped back. He said, "C'mon." like he was winning or something so I did. I charged again but he swung this time. I ducked and came back up to get a perfect face shot. I actually don't think they're called face shots but whatever. Haha. I got him good and everyone ooooh'ed and continued cheering. He stepped back and looked like he was going to pass out. Again and again I got him in the face. I didn't care. Sometime during this match I even heard someone yell, "Do it for your chickens!"Haha. Man, I whipped his butt. I kept going at him and he backed away about to pass out- That's when the head coach blew the whistle. I was amazed by how badly I beat him. I heard the whistle and completely stopped. And looked down to take off my gloves. That's when he came up and hit me in the head three times! A FEW SECONDS AFTER THE MATCH WAS OVER! I just took it and Coach ran up and restrained him by the neck and started yelling right in his face about how the match had been over and never to do something like that and how the coach was about to kick his butt. Of course, there were a lot more cuss words in it. Everyone was ecstatic and happy that I beat him so badly. Me not doing anything about his late hits just made me look even better in front of everyone.
I guess he couldn't handle his defeat so he hid behind the crowd of spectators. I doubt he'll be throwing anything at me again for a long time.
So, I guess the meaning of this story is that there's a time and place for fighting if you have a good reason to and that trying to start fights doesn't make you tough.
I guess another side meaning of this story would is also ignoring problems don't make them go away?
My football coach always talks about how he doesn't care who's strong or who's fastest, he cares about who's the toughest. He always says that he'd rather coach tough people because you can never win with cowards. He's actually got a great point. Being strong doesn't make you tough and being weak doesn't make you a coward.
He also always says that people who try picking fights around people of higher authority makes you more of a coward because if you try to pick a fight around teachers or a principal, then you know it's going to be broken up and you won't get hurt but still present the illusion of being strong and fearless.
To make a good team, we wanted to make sure he was putting in the toughest players. The way he determined who was tough was by putting us into 'combatives.' Basically they are situations were we're pitted one on one to compete in boxing, wrestling, hose wrestling, arm wrestling.. He knows we aren't in boxing classes or wrestling classes so he evaluates us on how hard we go at it. Some people this is easy to tell because they'd take a beating and keep going and that's who Coach wants on his team.
Anyways, about 3 weeks ago an old friend of mine turned sour all of a sudden and started being mean to me. I have no clue why. He would randomly hit the back of my helmet with his whenever I was taking a break from practice- He would call me names and tell me how bad I was at football. One day, during spring ball (four weeks of football practice at 6 before school), he decided to start telling me how bad I was while we were practicing. I am a defensive tackle and he is a center so we compete against each other. I was kicking his but and the offense had to redo a play four times in a row because I kept getting past him to the quarterback. This made him even more mad at me because he knew he was wrong. Anyways, times got harder, and he got meaner, and the entire time I just took it. I never did anything back or give in because I knew he was trying to start a pointless fight. People kept telling me things like, "Dude, why are you letting him push you around? Kick his butt." They often used more expressional language, though. Haha. Within the last week, after spring ball ended, it still was getting worse. I really hate him. I do. He treated me like crap and he talked bad about my girlfriend, whom I am deeply in love with, by calling her fat and ugly whenever she's beautiful. I just ignored it. Yesterday, he threw something at me in study hall from across the room because someone around me threw something at him and he thought it was me. He threw like 10 things at me and missed every time and was talking crap about me. Again, I just took it and never gave in to fighting. Of course, with any bully, this made him even more angry. At the beginning of practice, whenever we were going into the locker room to change, he was waiting for me and hit me with this big pad thing. It didn't hurt because how soft it is but did mess up my glasses. I was pretty mad. I got it from him and started swinging it so that he would leave me alone and it worked. After practice when we were changing back into our regular, school cloths, he started throwing stuff at me again. I dodged the stuff every time and didn't think much of it because I knew he was just trying to start a fight. I was just staring off into space while changing cloths and he decided to start yelling from across our dressing room, "Hey, stop looking at me." It's pretty loud in there so I just ignored him but he kept saying it. Eventually, he got up and started walking towards me saying stuff like, "Stop staring at me." and, "What's your problem?" Of course I'm going to look at him now, he's talking to me and walking up to me. Whenever he got to me he told me not to look at him but I just stared at him expressionless. He continued saying not to stare at him and that he was going to hit me. I just started laughing and said, "Do you really think that's a good reason to fight someone?" and turned away. I really didn't want to fight him because he was my friend a while back I hoped that he could just stop being a bully and come to his senses. The other reason is that I always say there is a time and place for fighting. This was not. Someone was going to get seriously hurt. This was no situation to fight for and there wasn't a real reason why he even started acting this way. People were mad at me for not hitting him and they told me I could have easily beaten him up. I know I could have, too. That's what really hurt me.
This past week we were told that we were going to box sometime this week or next week. They posted up who we were boxing this morning and I've got the kid that's been giving me trouble. I was excited and a little scared because he is pretty strong and about four inches taller than me. This was my chance. This was the time to fight. This is the time we could fight and not be penalized for it. I would finally show him how much of a man he is.
We boxed later that day. He talked crap about me and I simply ignored it. The way we box, anyone can come and spectate in the school because it's on the football field in a big circle in the middle. Everyone stands outside of the circle except the head football coach. There's a few trainers that watch us just in case someone gets knocked unconscious. (This has happened a few times.) You start at the whistle and end at the whistle. Occasionally, there's an extra swing or two after but they aren't intensional because it's pretty hard to hear the whistle. The matches usually go for about 30 seconds to a minute. We were in the middle of the matches so I watched many and some were pretty good. My friend beat the heck out of one kid and nearly knocked him out. Another 'bully' had to box a kid and looked like he was knocked unconscious but actually was still standing dazing into space. But, we were next. I never lost a boxing match despite my lack in boxing skill or knowledge and despite the matches all being nearly equally matched. I knew I was going to win. I had to. I quickly prayed and watched as the match before ours ended. We got out to the middle of the circle, touched gloves, stepped back, the whistle blew, and I charged at him and threw all of my weight into the first punch and hit him. Everyone was cheering. For the first 10 seconds we were about even but then I started getting face shots left and right and over and over again. This had been the longest match that I've been in. Left and right I was getting him good. Of course, he got a few hits on me. Nothing compared to what I did to him. About 30 seconds into it he swung and I ducked and stepped back. He said, "C'mon." like he was winning or something so I did. I charged again but he swung this time. I ducked and came back up to get a perfect face shot. I actually don't think they're called face shots but whatever. Haha. I got him good and everyone ooooh'ed and continued cheering. He stepped back and looked like he was going to pass out. Again and again I got him in the face. I didn't care. Sometime during this match I even heard someone yell, "Do it for your chickens!"Haha. Man, I whipped his butt. I kept going at him and he backed away about to pass out- That's when the head coach blew the whistle. I was amazed by how badly I beat him. I heard the whistle and completely stopped. And looked down to take off my gloves. That's when he came up and hit me in the head three times! A FEW SECONDS AFTER THE MATCH WAS OVER! I just took it and Coach ran up and restrained him by the neck and started yelling right in his face about how the match had been over and never to do something like that and how the coach was about to kick his butt. Of course, there were a lot more cuss words in it. Everyone was ecstatic and happy that I beat him so badly. Me not doing anything about his late hits just made me look even better in front of everyone.
I guess he couldn't handle his defeat so he hid behind the crowd of spectators. I doubt he'll be throwing anything at me again for a long time.
So, I guess the meaning of this story is that there's a time and place for fighting if you have a good reason to and that trying to start fights doesn't make you tough.
I guess another side meaning of this story would is also ignoring problems don't make them go away?
