Monday, September 22, 2014

Power

Every person on the planet experiences power whether they know it or not. Sometimes the power is lost, sometimes it is gained, sometimes it was always there, and sometimes it is trained. During a basketball game early on in my life, I exhibited what felt like the most limitless power I have ever known. The feeling came to me the moment the game started, on the very first shot I took. I was apart of an inter-city league team that was pretty damn good and I was pretty proud to be apart of. We came across our last game that despite our record, was considered a must win. Basically, the game starts, I walk up the court with an isolation play in the works, get myself open, and bang, three. My "power" in basketball has always been the ability to lose defenders, make them miss, and 'break their ankles' so to speak. This day, was probably the best day I'd ever had in terms of that. I had almost made every other kid on the team fall, so at this point they were a little hesitant to play up so close to me, giving me the space and ability to just keep shooting at will. My teammates were also able to get open as freely as they wished on that day, so we kept on scoring and assisting each other, all the way to a 78-22 win to start our playoff run. I felt like I was in a dream, literally. Every little thing was so easy that it just felt like I was on autopilot, and felt like I had all of the power in the world.


During my sophomore year in high school, I was playing a little game of football, which was going great, up until the point where I had exhibited my first true loss of power. My team was up a few touchdowns, so we were playing very lackadaisically. Unfortunately for me, what came next was awful. I began to call the snap when I realized that there were way too many men in the box for it not to be a blitz, so when the ball reached my hands, I scrambled. Long story short, I got sandwiched between one kid who was twice my size, and another rather large rough object known as the ground. All in all, I had to be brought to the hospital only to find out that my clavicle was snapped so bad it almost came out of my neck. This caused me to miss my sophomore season of basketball, and with that plenty of fun things to do. This made me feel not only left out, but useless, like a pencil snapped in half. It was in that moment where not only I realized what it felt like to break a bone, but what it truly felt like to experience a loss of power.


When it comes to strengthening my power(s), I put a lot of my free time into perfecting what I do. For one, I've mentioned over and over that I play sports, both football and basketball are what I love to do most. I also have mentioned how I pride myself in my ability and power to be a natural leader and to inspire those who come with me. When it comes to that last bit, it usually just involves experience and and the courage to boil up the words that are necessary to get someone going. I'm just good at that I guess. I'm a great speaker and on top of it an amazing people person. Anybody who knows me would tell you that. However, I take great pride in the countless hours I spend on the field, court, and in the gym working as hard as I do in order to get where I feel I NEED to go. If I mess something up, I do it over again. In my opinion its practice that is needed in order to harness, discover, and strengthen ones powers. There's a reason why people say practice makes perfect.

When I was a Limitless Child
When I was a Limitless Child
I ruled the world
I was able to do all of the things that humans couldn't
I was superman, batman and a jedi all in one
I was a NFL superstar Quarterback 
and I was a king
I was the MVP of the NBA 
and I ruled the ring
When I was a limitless child 
nobody could defeat my kingdom
all of the super powers in the world were mine to use
my imagination was a weapon of mass destruction
and my home was my base
When I was a limitless child I was head of the house
I made millions of dollars and had a dream spouse
When I was a limitless child my dreams were reality.

                                                                                                                 

1 comment:

  1. Tyler,

    Good post. I like the way you started with some introductory sentences. They really open up the post and pull the reader in. Good hook.

    Great writing - it flows like a story, nearly seamlessly.

    Your poem is good, too, but if feels a little rushed. I think it could be longer, and I think there are some lines seem out of the flow. House and spouse are a good rhyme, but I think that spouse part is out of the main theme. You could tuck it into the body of the poem, but as a near end line, it doesn't seem to have the power that the end of a poem needs.

    I like the pictures you chose. The design is simple and sleek. Great pick of yourself as that limitless child. I dig that.

    One other suggestion, and I think a few students are falling into this already, is for you to start to move away from the sports theme. I want you to take the themes of this course now and go beyond basketball and baseball. There's much more to your life to be explored. I don't want you to feel like you need to write about sports each week. I'd like to see you tap into your creativity and think about other moments in your life.

    Where else have you been powerful - off the court.

    That, I'd like to know. Think about it.


    GR: 88

    ReplyDelete