The Boxing Match

Life is not like a box chocolates…not sweet all the time with surprise creamy centers.

Life, to me, seems like a boxing match. Round by round waiting to see if it is a win, lose or draw. I have been knocked out on several occasions.

I took a few punches when I was a kid and felt powerless and didn’t know what kind of fight I had in me. I took one from the school counselor who told me that I wasn’t going to amount to anything. I took one from the other students who had no tolerance of me because I was different, poor, and possessed  no social status.  

During the childhood rounds I climbed up the rope after being knocked down and looked my opponents square in the eye and fought back. That fight has led me to being one of the first of my family members to graduate from high school and go on to pursue a career in higher education.  The first round belongs to me.

Other rounds came when my sweet father died unexpectedly when I was twenty years old; a right hook I never saw coming.  Another TKO happened when my brother was shot and killed by a fourteen year old kid looking for love and acceptance in a gang.

I laid on the floor for a long time in those rounds. Listening to the count..debating….. if I should throw the towel in or get back up. Wondering if I could take anymore of the battering?

I climbed up one rope at a time. I mourned and grieved and learned to accept the losses. I  went on to continue the fight. There was no winner in this round….no winner and no loser…just a draw.

Round four is the relationship round.  This is a round I believe I am still fighting. I am learning what punches to duck and what the body can absorb. This may be a long round.  

I don’t know if it is because I am stubborn, competitive or driven but I refuse to stay down for the count in any round of my life.

Let’s keep up the fight together. Let’s focus on learning strategies we can use from previous rounds to have more wins than loses.

 Sometimes we all have to relinquish control and call a draw.

Keeping it real with Dr. Mary G