When I was little I had a love for video games. I would play with my grandpa on my GameCube and every time he beat me that drove my anger to beat him in the game. It got so bad that my grandpa and my grandma knew how I got when I played video games. It was me playing games and always trying to win that made me who I am now, a person that hates to lose. A person that would win at all costs just to get an edge over someone else. When I was young my mom put me in many sports like football, basketball, and baseball. I liked playing with my friends but I was a more aggressive person so a lot of these sports had no meaning to me. Especially playing flag football where there was no contact just running after each other like how small little kindergarteners should be playing. 

When I was younger I would always spend time with my uncle, he was always my go-to man.. Back when he was still living in his mothers house he would teach me how to box and that’s where it all started for me.

I was only like three years old when he first taught me how to throw a punch. He would get down to his knees and make me put the gloves on while I hit the pads. As a young kid who loved to be aggressive I liked boxing and I loved hitting the pads because I loved that feeling of hitting something. It went from me hitting the pads to me sparring him on his knees. I was still young at the time so he took it easy on me while me being only five or six, I would go all out. 

As time went on my uncle started taking me to the gym with him to box. I was still young but I liked it, the mix of spending time with my uncle and boxing made me always love staying with him. It wasn´t until this one time when my uncle left for work and he left me alone is when things started to take a turn. I was bored and I found my uncle’s chain on the table. I started swinging it around on my finger, faster, and faster until it swung off my finger. The next time I did it, it fell under the door and I couldn’t get it out. I pulled on it and the chain broke into two pieces. I knew my uncle loved that chain and I was scared to tell him what happened so I started thinking fast. I ended up flushing the chain down the toilet and I felt relieved. I knew he would ask for it or if I’d seen it so I decided that once he came back I would lie. After that I stopped training with my uncle and didn’t see him as often.

It wasn´t until we moved in together in Teaneck that I started seeing him often. It was my mom, my uncle, and myself, the young, light-skinned, troubled one. My uncle ended up turning the garage into a boxing gym and I helped him put the whole thing together. I had friends taking up most of my time and school. I ended up getting into other sports like basketball but me and my uncle hung out sometimes. We decided to get back into boxing since we would see each other more often. We worked out everyday, from him teaching me things like different combos and me boxing with his clients. When I fought his clients I would be the one punching them while they would work on defense. They would tell my uncle how I hit really hard as a young kid. It did make me feel good knowing that I hit hard and it motivated me to box. 

One day I was sparing and all was good until I got punched in the mouth a little too hard. I got mad and left. It felt as if I had lost and the physical pain made it worse. It was that feeling that made me quit boxing and play other sports.

Playing sports with my friends made everything more fun and it took my mind off of responsibilities and getting older. When I got older and time started to go by I realized that boxing was the only thing I had in life. When I realized that you can´t run from anything and that you have to take it head on, I vowed to never quit anything else as long as I lived. I started training with my uncle every other day and I got better and better.

When life punches you in the face or knocks you down, what will you do? You can choose to stay down and keep running or will you get up and fight. From that day on I chose to fight like a man and get through the pain. When life hits me hard I just choose to think of that day to keep pushing myself.