Again – Chapter 10 – JohnA Passaro

Survival sounds like the most pathetic goal,
But it isn’t.

Krista Threefoot

My refueling process always begins with my researching great people.

This is an amazing time we live in. With a few keystrokes, I have access to all the motivation and inspiration in the world.

So I turn on my computer and I type the words “Tom Ryan” into my Google search box.

Up comes a video that Flo Wrestling made called “The Most Dominant Wrestler” featuring Tom Ryan, the head wrestling coach of Ohio State University.

Immediately I know it is the exact prescription for my mood.

At one point in the video, Tom talks about a wrestler’s ability to keep fighting, even in obvious defeat.

“You are not always going to win.

We all know that a crowd will stand up if you fight your heart out…

If you are losing by 8 and you somehow, someway, score the last takedown

so you lose by 6 and you save your team a point.

I’ve seen it…

I would expect that wrestler to fight that way if his wife were sick and needed help.

I would expect him to fight that way if something happened to his child.

I would expect him to fight that way in every situation in his life.

Those are the lessons that you have to take away from the sport.

That I am on planet earth, and it may not be pretty, but nothing is going to stop me from fighting.”

After watching Tom Ryan’s video, I immediately say to myself,

“I can get the last takedown.”

“I can keep fighting.”

Just improve your position, I hear in my head.

I can do that.

I can survive.

For my team, my family.

Surviving is a most powerful force.

As I struggle to survive this adversity, I know that I am shaping my spirit and reinforcing my will to live.

To love.

With struggle, life has a renewed vigor.

A sense of amazement is returned.

Belief, confidence and enthusiasm are reignited.

I remember reading somewhere that you only survive when you love something more than you hate the pain.

And I do.

And that isn’t pathetic.

I am on planet earth, and it may not be pretty, but nothing is going to stop me from fighting.”

Read the next chapter – Snow Globe