In the last post I posed the question “What are my fitness values?” And that really got me to thinking…
So I busted out the pen and paper and thought about what people would say about me now at my funereal if I died today (as morbid is it is.. it really helped). A few things came to mind however I’m not going to discuss them. Then I thought about what I wanted people to say about me when I’m dead. Then came up with some fitness values that are in line with those things. Here are a few things that I came up with:
One of my fitness values come from life experiences, all my life I’ve been the biggest person in the room and by being the biggest person in the room there are certain things that I experienced and that I want to experience but couldn’t because of my size.
For example: I remember going to summer camp in the third or fourth grade and not being able to get a camp t-shirt nor a shirt with my team name on it because I was the biggest kid there. So when we had team challenges I was always stood out in more ways in one. The only black kid in the camp and I didn’t have shirt.
Not to make this a race thing but you have to understand where I came from…Detroit and the metro Detroit area is of the most segregated places in the U.S. The city of Detroit was about 99% black, however the surrounding cities were about 1% black and further you got pass 8 mile, such as 22 mile (yes there is such a thing), that number would be less than 1%.
So when I didn’t get a shirt at camp. I had to question is it because I’m the only black person here or is it because I’m the biggest kid here or is it both? I know now it’s because of my size but as a kid you don’t know and it makes you feel less than worthy either way.
I also remember the last day of camp where we had this obstacle course think Tough Mudder before it was cool. My team was in the lead throughout the race until we got to the last obstacle which was the wall. Being the biggest kid I helped everyone get over the wall but when it was my turn they couldn’t get me over. Eventually our team was disqualified because everyone i.e. me, didn’t make it through all the obstacles. The team blamed me for the loss.