There are a lot of things we can gain from our past. Our past shapes what we are today, through good and bad, and we either embrace it or forget about it to look towards the future. The past gives us joy, sadness and frustration at the same time; however, it all becomes experience. Where else does one build a strong case for themselves to advance into the future, but in their past? Whether we consult a résumé, an old diary, pictures or other memories, all point in the direction that time itself has already retired.
I had a brief yet great conversation with my old football coach during the second half of the Pitt game on Monday night. He was in town with a friend checking out the nearby Rib Fest and enjoying Pittsburgh and sat in a club box to see Pitt play against Florida State. After a frustrating series of calls and meeting points, I finally crossed paths with Dick Delaney, and the memories just began to gush out. He was my coach from freshman year to senior year, and he took a football program not known for winning championships to a PIAA state semifinal in 2007. All of those practices and film sessions and off-season workouts in the weight room paid off, as we went from 3-7 in 2004 to 12-3 in 2007. It's always nice to talk about those things with Coach Delaney, who had to retire from the head coaching job because of conflicts with work. He was always one of those guys who made time for his players, in spite of working hours in a steel mill and raising a family of his own in a community 20 minutes away. He made our team believe that we could win; in the end, after all those injuries, sweat and heartbreaks along the way, we made our mark on the area's athletic tradition. My parents still talk about those days fondly, although my mom did ruin a dryer after a particularly muddy Friday night with three sets of football uniforms, and football itself remains lively dinner conversation, now five years removed, when the entire family is home.
I would argue that high school football and wrestling shaped me in many ways into the man that I am today. What I gained physically from the two sports made me into a decent athlete during my high school years, and I still think about those days when I want to get into shape once again. One of the things that continues to motivate me in the gym are memories of coaches pushing me to finish a drill, run or lift. The workout plan we used in football is still (roughly) what I use when I try to design a gym regimen today. In both sports, the "no-excuses" approach that my coaches took rings true when I reach for an excuse lever, making me think about whether or not I'm part of the problem first. Part of what is driving me through this semester is the rigorous activity I've already been through in my life, and my coaches from high school make up a substantial part of that. In a later post, with a slightly different topic, I will highlight a couple great professors who have inspired me since coming to the University of Pittsburgh.
At the end of the day, when I look at what I need to accomplish this semester already in anticipation for the next, I look back at some of the hard work that I have done that eventually came to fruition. I remember the time and work put into that period of my life, how I felt going through it, and what it felt like to receive the eventual reward at the end. The inspiration for the day comes from both success and failure, however: remember that, throughout life, there will be times where you put in all the time and effort one can possibly give, and still fail. Thomas Edison once said, "I didn't fail 1,000 times to make an incandescent light bulb; I just found 1,000 ways not to make a light bulb."
Let failures, just as much as successes, drive you to your next success. It took my high school football team all four years to finally win a championship, and even then we picked up many big wins that few people expected us to get. I never won more than 20 matches in my high school wrestling career, but the personal benefits I gained from three years of wrestling far outweigh the temporary pain and disappointment of losing. Through the rest of the week, take the time to look at your past. Give someone a call who made a difference in your life when you were younger. Pull out an old photo album, maybe a mix tape, better yet a trophy or a medal: think about how you got to that point, and what you felt after earning it. Use that to propel yourself to future success. Using the past in the present, to build the future, leads you on the straight line of success.
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