21 April 2021
You say to yourself; it’s going to be a long road.
Give your all, knowing it may never be enough. Turn down scholarship opportunities and instead pursue your dream, it won’t be easy, but it will be worth it; Remember your 6th grade goal, “Earn an athletic scholarship to Stanford”; Give your all, knowing it may never be enough.
Lean on your family when you feel lost, discouraged, and want to go home. Arrive on campus months behind everyone else; Be unafraid by the size, strength, and speed of those around you; Embrace the nervous excitement instead of feeling fear; Each day try to find a single thing you did right, some days you won’t be able to find anything at all; When it all seems to fail, remember that your worth does not reside in performance; Lean on your family when you feel lost, discouraged, and want to go home.
Embody humility. See others excel without putting in the work — life isn’t fair my friend, learn that early; Rejoice in others success, don’t envy it; Be your teammates’ biggest fan; Cheer so loud you lose your voice; Read books to help embrace your role; Be a willful servant and feel entitled to nothing; Carry bags through the airport and warm-up your teammates, and do both with a smile. Embody humility.
Be relentless with your work ethic. Spend your Halloween nights and New Year’s Eves in the gym — alone but at peace; Desire to do the work when no one is watching; Workout before games, workout after games; Run laps, run sprints, run so hard your head is spinning; When at home, spend hours in the scorching hot garage, transforming your idol’s routine into something twice as hard; Turn on the gym lights in the morning, and shoot till they shut off in the evening. Be relentless with your work ethic.
Make lifelong friendships along the way. Find those who challenge you to be better and cling tight; Compete against them and don’t talk for days if you lose, then move on with a stronger bond; Go on adventures, watch documentaries, maybe even cut lightning bolts in your hair to add a bit of flair; Deliver the 1-2 punch, dolphin kick, and eat açai bowls till you feel too full. Make lifelong friendships along the way.
Travel the world. Swim in the pristine water of the Bahamas and take the subway through Munich; Envision gladiator battles in the Coliseum; Notice the nuances of the rock faces in Switzerland; Enjoy a beautiful day on the water in Como; Do all this to come to the conclusion there is no place like home. Travel the world.
Be eager to learn. Throw yourself in the fire, choose a major no player has ever chosen, and do it in three years; Stay up late studying, but never too late — wake up early instead; Find a soulless study spot in the library stacks; Seek out mentorship; Apply to summer internships; Listen to perspectives of those who are different than you. Be eager to learn.
Find beauty in the struggle. Get so frustrated you scream and yell; Hold back tears when they want to pour; Question what you’re doing, it’s ok to feel despair; Break down during warmups; Feel exhausted; Feel like you’ve never felt before: absolutely helpless; Recognize that sometimes courage just means trying again tomorrow. Find beauty in the struggle.
Find small ways to create your edge, you need any advantage you can get. Allow months to pass without eating dessert and make a lifelong commitment to never drinking; Spend early mornings in the sand pit and afternoons running hills; Show up before practice, and stay afterwards; Get your head in the game through sports psychology and yoga; Deactivate your social media to deliver laser-like focus. Find little ways to create your edge, you need any advantage you can get.
Be a part of something bigger than yourself. Spend time at your Coaches’ houses and befriend their families; Celebrate road wins and internalize defeats; Become a veteran and show the freshmen the way; See the program go from the bottom of the conference to a Pac-12 title contender knowing there is more work to be done. Be a part of something bigger than yourself.
Believe. Receive a scholarship after your freshman year, but only because there are leftovers. Allow the narrative to be you earned it, when in reality there was just leftovers. Don’t lose hope that you’ll make it happen for real. Believe.
Most importantly, rely on your faith to carry you through. Spend Sundays at Church even though you’ve never been a Church-goer; Spend the High Holidays at Hillel; Sing worship songs and listen to testimonies; Trust God’s plan, but do your part; Allow your faith to give an eviction notice to worry; Find strength in Him even when you’re weak; When you’re down, allow others to show God’s love towards you, then return the favor. Rely on your faith to carry you through.
Be grateful for it all, for it’s what makes you, you.
It’s a beautiful road, you say to yourself.
Sam Beskind 