Rules of Life

 Play dodgeball
Me and my friends growing up would play dodgeball where we would
throw a hard tennis ball at each other. It was a pretty painful game at
times but we all liked it because of the fear factor behind it, and it was
fun; it was risky to play because we could get hurt, but it was a fun game.
In life, you need to be able to take risks in life. They are challenging to do
at times, but that is how you succeed. Nothing is easy in life.
 Be that guy
My uncle would always tell me “be that guy” which is something that I
didn’t quite get at first but over the years I now understand and I want to
be that guy. It is important to receive help from others, and even more so
to return the favour to those who need it most. You want to be known as
the person that people can depend on.
 Protect your chicken
My favourite NFL team is the Seattle Seahawks and my favourite all time
player is Marshawn Lynch because he was a beast, and he was hilarious
in interviews. In his final ever interview after his last NFL game, he told
his fans to “protect y’all chicken”. Chicken is a slang term that means
money, and in Marshawn Lynch’s entire NFL career, he saved up every
penny that he made from his contract and instead lived off of his
sponsorship money. He is now retired, and I imagine living very happily.
You need to be smart financially in order to succeed in life, regardless of
how much you make. Protect your chicken.
 Get some drip
Drip is a term used for good clothes, and the word I usually go to when
describing clothes that I like. Your outfit says a lot about you. You don’t
need the most expensive Jordan’s at footlocker, but you do need an
outfit that reflects good on you and looks presentable to others. If you
wore what I wear around my house to a job interview, you probably
aren’t getting hired.
 Life is like Popeye’s chicken
When Popeye’s opened up their restaurant in Langley, I loved the food
and it was one of my go to restaurants for the longest time. However,
they modified their spicy chicken sandwich which is my favourite item on
the menu. Popeye’s is hyped up as the best chicken in the world
“supposedly” but personally, I do not see it anymore. In life, many things
will be hyped out but that doesn’t mean that it is the best thing in the
entire universe. Don’t buy into all the hype and instead, form an opinion
off of your experience.
 Go to the woodshop
When I was in grade 7 in woodwork class, I nearly lost my right thumb on
a bandsaw because I was fooling around. Because of this, I garnered a
fear of woodworking due to that one experience and I did not ever
choose to be in a woodwork class again. Last year when choosing my
classes for Grade 12, I decided to pick woodwork because “why not”, and
I realize now that was a great decision. Not only is Ms. Dahl a
phenomenal and respectful teacher, but I now love woodwork and its
one of my favourite classes. Because of my fear from one experience
(that was completely my fault) I did not choose to be in that class again. I
regret not being in woodwork class for all of my high school time now.
Don’t let one bad experience shape your view on something.
 Get back on the horse
For my 9th birthday we went to my aunt and uncle’s house down in the
states. They had a massive property as well as 2 horses. My uncle R knew
I had a fear of horses and pestered me to go horseback riding. He said it
40 times but I never relented, until I realized he wouldn’t stop because
that’s who he was. So I did and I was having fun, until the horse got
scared of something (I’m still not sure what) and it started jumping and
running all over the field with me on its back. I fell off hard and landed on
my head, I was definitely concussed. Next thing I remember was being
surrounded by my family and thinking “man, I’ll never ride a horse ever
again”. My uncle tells me he was proud of me and says as serious as can
be “we’ll put you back on later”. I disapproved immediately and so did
everyone else. My uncle passed away after a battle with cancer. He was
the most successful man that I ever met and I can see now he was
successful because of his will and his fear of regret. I would do anything
to spend another minute with him, even writing this makes me
emotional. I use the infamous and embarrassing horse story as
motivation to overcome my fears. When I want to break out of my
comfort zone but don’t have the motivation, in my head I visualize my
uncle R with a big cigar in his mouth telling me to get on the horse.
Failure is worse than regret. And my uncle told me 2 days before he
passed that he didn’t regret anything about his life, and that makes me
happy and gives me the motivation to get on the horse.
 Don’t order from Sidra’s
When I was 10 my family ordered pizza from a place called Sidra’s. I was
not a fan of the pizza and nor was my mom, but my dad was. A couple
weeks later against my wish it was ordered again for dinner and this time,
it sucked even more. I was furious and I still remember how I felt when I
decided to vent all of my frustrations through a google review on Sidra’s
pizza. They called my dad after seeing my expletive filled review and I got
into a lot of trouble. I stand by what I said about the pizza sucking, but I
was completely in the wrong for what I said. It wasn’t anything horrible,
but it was something I should not have done nonetheless, and I haven’t
again to this day. The lesson I learned was to keep my emotions to myself
even when I wanted to vent them; if you don’t have anything good to
say, don’t say it. At least we never ordered from Sidra’s ever again.
 Kick the ball
I began playing soccer when I was 10 years old. To say I was terrible
would be an understatement and my work ethic also was not the best,
but I still loved the sport. After the conclusion of my first season, for the
entire summer I had a soccer ball at my feet and would non stop kick it
around and dribble it everywhere. Whenever I hung with my friends, we
would have to play soccer, something they did no like. When the next
season rolled around, it was like a switch was flipped. A coach for a team
that was in a higher ranked division than my team came to one of my
games to watch me. We lost 7-1 but he approached me after the game
and told me I was extremely talented and that I could practice with his
team, so that’s what I did. I made his team and even in a higher level, I
was one of the best players, something my new teammates openly
admitted. If you want to become good at anything, you’re going to have
to sacrifice and put in a ton of hard work.
 Choose hockey
A couple years ago I had to make the choice to either continue playing
hockey, or soccer, and stick to one or the other. After finding success in
soccer I became extremely talented and the same thing in hockey.
However I was always more talented in soccer than I was at hockey. I had
to work way harder at hockey to be good than I did for soccer. So I chose
soccer, even though I loved hockey way more and still did. The next
season was my worse one, I was injured, our team was terrible, I lost my
captaincy and I was on the bench a lot. All it takes is one bad decision to
completely derail something good. I was a shell of myself. At one point I
was very promising in soccer but I didn’t have the dedication to be better
like I did when I was 10. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work
hard. I resumed playing hockey this year after 3 years away from the
game I loved the most, and after putting in tons of hard work, I am better
now than I ever was at any point in my prior hockey career.
 Just play the game
For my hockey tryout prior to this season, it was not looking good for me.
I was falling down, losing the puck, I couldn’t shoot it either and I heard
people laughing at me. I went home and I didn’t think about it, I decided
to just be better next time. Next tryout I was way better, and I scored a
goal. Once the season rolled around I came out blazing. In 8 games so far,
I have 7 goals and 3 assists, and my team is tied foe first in the league.
When you hear negativity said about you, just drown it out or use it as
motivation, and just focus on being better. Just play the game.
 Be faster
When lockdown came around and we were given homework to work on
at home, I got very behind. Prior to lockdown I had a B in my English
class. A week out before final week, I was so far behind that I nearly gave
up completely. However I sucked it up and got to work on a big paper.
The paper was so good in the end that my teacher congratulated me. She
told me that had I not done the paper, I nearly would have failed the
class but because I did and how good it was, she would let me keep my
mark of a B. If it were handed in way sooner, I would have had an A. You
have to be on time in life, or you might just miss out on something even
better.