What Wrestling Has Taught Me

Here we go again. Another student-athlete writing up a story about sports.
Yippee!

Though this might be a short excerpt on my experience with the sport of
wrestling, I would encourage you to take five minutes out of your day to give this a read. Who knows? My experience might actually give you some new perspectives!

Wrestling, by far, has been one of the toughest physical, mental, emotional,and spiritual challenges I have ever faced, and for some odd reason, I keep coming back to it. It has taught me infinite lessons about myself and life in general. In my biased opinion, wrestling is one of the best examples of a microcosm of life that there is.

When life is tough, you have to get tough. (I learned this through daily, grueling practices.)

When life takes you down, you have to stand back up. (Every loss I had in my career, I learned to bounce back and get the next best thing.)

When things do not go your way, you need to find a way. (I learned how to find ways to win, both on and off the mat.)

When all seems hopeless, you have to find your purpose. (Wrestling taught me that even in the darkest of moments, if your purpose is strong enough, you can make it through!)

When there is nobody to blame but you, take responsibility. (I was quick to learn that I was the only one on the mat, so I had to own up to my shortcomings.)

Believe it or not, life is not all sunshine and rainbows. A lot of the time
it’s a grind. It’s a fight to stay afloat. We have to roll with the punches and
push to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be!

Wrestling will teach you that. It will teach you how to win with humility
and lose with grace. It will teach you that your work ethic is one of the most
important things in your life. It will teach you to keep moving forward even
when you feel like you can’t. It will teach you to keep fighting when your back is against the ropes. It will teach you how to compete with constrained
violence, then shake an opponent’s hand when the dust settles. I think you get the point. The list goes on and on.

However, stay with me for one more minute. This is the ultimate lesson that
I have learned from this sport.

Sometimes, life is not fair. No matter how hard you work, no matter how
dedicated you are, no matter how bad you want it, your dreams don’t become a reality. Life can truly bring you to your knees, but that does not mean that it ends!

Taking pride in how far you have come, finding silver linings, and who you
become along the way are a few things someone can look at when things get
rough! Always remember to control the things you can control, and let go of the things you cannot.

Man, do I love this sport!