Do Some Damage

In LeBron James' documentary "More Than a Game", it chronicles Lebron's rising hype as he is playing high school basketball. During that time in the movie, they ask NBA personnel what their thoughts are on LeBron, etc etc. There was always a quote that really hit home for me and I thought it was really cool. The quote was from from Shaq (Shaquille O' Neal), and he promptly and poignantly said "I think he's going to do some damage at the next level". This is such an amazing quote for me, it is just sort of no-nonsense honesty when Shaq is talking about the next great NBA player. I think of all the hype LeBron was getting when he was finishing high school, the whole world was watching and talking about him and the NBA world was a buzz. Such huge expectations, but what Shaq was saying was that LeBron is too good to not be noticed and to be a game changer and essentially do some damage. That is what I am currently striving for. I want to be a game-changer. For my immediate goals I want to do well in my summer courses and also join the UBC Track team in September.

I really think I have a shot at joining the UBC Track team this year. I have full active registration at UBC, there is a new UBC Track head coach, which gives me a chance to make a good impression. Likewise, he might be willing to take some risks to improve his team. The old UBC Track coach never responded to my emails so I had to talk to him in person. My current times are not really close to being competitive yet, but I'm still looking to drop about 20 pounds. Once I do drop those 20 pounds (and I know I will), I will have a more competitive time. I'm the lightest weight I've been in about two and a half years. I'm about 6 pounds lighter than my usual weight over the past year. I think I've made it past that hump and I'm hoping to lose all of my next 20 pounds in the next month. Diet will be just as important as exercise for dropping weight. Then once I'm at a good weight, my exercise routine will be paramount. I'm really excited for what could possibly happen. I have set a hard deadline to be as fast as possible as soon as possible, but there is also an outside chance that if I'm a few seconds away from a competitive time come September, I can continue to train, and simply join the team once my times are up to par. I'm not sure if the coach would be okay with that, but I also do not want to rely on that, because he could easily say "sorry, you just have to try again next year". I have such a strong motivation to become a varsity athlete. I would be so unbelievably happy if that happened and I would work so hard to keep my spot on the team. I know I just have to grind away. A few basketball players are big motivators to me, like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and Michael Jordan, simply because they work so hard. I want to be like them. I want the ball in my hands, and my time is now. But I know I have to work hard to shave those seconds off my time.