What Makes a Great Opportunity

What makes a great opportunity? Is it the glory of the moment or is it the reward that we reap when we finally achieve our goal? It is actually the journey to accomplishing that goal that makes the end feel so sweet. The Egyptians used to believe that when the sun rises early in the morning it is God giving birth to a new day. They would say this because every day that the sun rises, the world gives birth to a new opportunity. If you think about it, it is like Earth’s own little miracle that the sun rises every day. We only have so many times that the sun will rise and fall in our lives before we see our last. Every opportunity we have is born from the dark, it is just about getting back up on our feet, brushing the dirt off our backs, and getting right back into the fight.

Thomas Fuller once said, “The night is darkest before the dawn.” I believe this to be true because every time I have ever accomplished my goal it always felt “darkest,” the hardest, or impossible before, and then suddenly I had my breakthrough. One of the darkest times in my life, I had to fight through it, dig with everything I had through all of the crap, and then arose an opportunity that would set me on a path towards my end goal. I had just started playing travel hockey the year before after joining about halfway through the season because I took the spot of someone who put their self-interest before the teams. I was lucky to be considered for the position because I hadn’t even tried out for a travel team I just wanted to play hockey with my friends and it was crazy expensive for my parents. Luckily the coach came to see me practice and decided I was ready to play a few levels up. A year later and a much more skilled and motivated me rose from the ashes. Tryouts usually lasted about three days but were spread out in one week’s time. During this time we are given a set few drills to compete and show our skills and talent to the board of people selecting the team for the new year. I was under a lot of pressure still being the new kid trying to hustle as hard as I can to keep up with the rest of the kids. I fought, skated, and stick-handled, and shot to prove that I was good enough to be on this team and to continue to play with my newfound friends from the season prior. Everything I had was not enough to play on the team in their eyes. Me being who I am I wouldn’t let the word of some coaches get me down. Just because someone thought that I wasn’t “good enough” doesn’t mean that I couldn’t become good enough. In the following weeks after tryouts that year I worked my tail off, I did pushup after pushup, shot after shot, and stayed up hours after my bedtime to stick handle to prove to them and everyone else that I could play with those guys. A month went by of working hard and training by myself, praying to God that it would be good enough and that they would take me back. During mass I would pray to God to let me on the team somehow, I would even sing the psalms that were so embarrassing to sing out loud from my loud shrieky voice. After nearly popping my eardrums out at mass a number of times it seems like my prayers were answered. I got a phone call a few days later in the afternoon from my coach that I had the prior year who would also be the coach of the new team. He told me how one of the kids that made the team dropped off and said that there was a spot available for me to play on the team if I wanted to. God of course rewarded my hard work over that month and gave me my chance to show that I can run with the bulls. That season we would later go on to win the State Championship beating out the undefeated team that had been our kryptonite all year long. Another great example of fighting through their problems and never letting them get the best of him was none other than my cousin Andrew. My confidant, my buddy, my hero, Andrew has had a lot of problems in his life. His life started out giving him a disadvantage paralyzing him on the entire left half of his body. Due to this he cannot speak, cannot walk, with his left hand he can’t do much at all really. The entire left half of his body is cramped up tightly in a very awkward position and he cannot move anything. He was also of course diagnosed with cerebral palsy. This makes everything ten times harder for him. During the beginning of the quarantine, it of course amplified his pain. He wasn’t able to get the physical therapy he needed, so all of his body including his right side got real tight and he was in very severe pain all the time. When he could finally get the help he needed after many months of trying to find a way, he finally started getting his therapy again. For about a month he was stuck in bed where he couldn’t move anything just till his muscles and bones got acclimated to the therapy again. He didn’t let it get the best of him. He kept going and going and going until he finally could go out and watch his little brother’s hockey games again and finally see me run my final races in high school. Without him, I don’t know who I’d be today and I am so thankful for him being in my life because wouldn’t be nearly as hungry or driven as I am today.

For most of my life, I have had a negative relationship with failure, with problems or hardships I have faced. Not anymore. I can relate to what Duke Ellington said: “A problem is a chance to do your best.” Now I believe that whenever failure stares at me with its big, dark, mysterious eyes it’s only a challenge for me to stand up to him.

“Hockey Action” by Scott Thomas Photography is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0