All-Around Tough
Tough. The word people use to describe themselves as. Wanted to be known as the tough guy around school or in the neighborhood may be something that you want or something you want no part of. Tough, may also be the life you are living. You could be struggling with family issues, friend issues, or any other issues that might be tough. Most people in today’s world can relate to having issues, no one can really control what happens. If you can control what happens, then you have to make the best decision for yourself. Mental toughness is something that everyone needs to have. You can’t just give in to what other people say to you, you have to be strong. People will make fun of you, but you can’t let them get to your head. If they get into your head then you may have thoughts of hurting yourself, or somebody else. During a sports game, if somebody gets into your head, you are basically done unless you can stay positive and work hard to win. Stay strong and fight through the pain, and you will get the results you want. Fighting for things you love is definitely showing your true toughness. I gained a lot of knowledge from the book Halfback Tough by Thomas J. Dygard. He showed me that courage, determination, hard work, and most of all toughness are an essential part of being a well rounded person and a good ball player.
The game known as football is a national pastime. Football dates back to the 1800’s and it has evolved into the game people love, play, and watch today. Any young boy has the dream of being a superstar to play in the National Football League. All the prime time big shots go there, hoping to get large amounts of money for playing an extraordinary game. Skills develop at an early age, catching, throwing, blocking, and running. Kids just want to have a chance to play the game. Once these youngsters reach high school there is nothing that they want more but to play the game of football. Towns and cities from all over the state, and the country are very into high school football. Top of the line equipment, turf fields, and even athletes risking their lives for this game. Everyone wants to be good enough to compete with the best. They want huge college scholarships from unbeatable division one teams that can guarantee to get you to the promise land. Being a leader in football is a very big advantage. Playing the quarterback position is like being the point guard on a basketball team, or a pitcher on the baseball team. You have to guide your team to victory. I play football; the quarterback position is the spot where I play. On my part I need tremendous leadership skills to make sure we at least have a chance to come close to victory. In this book, Joe the new kid in school is very messed up; he had a very bad record at his old school. He signs up for the football team, and he needs to make the best of every opportunity. In my eyes, the author is telling me that no matter what the circumstances are and however the past may have been, always make the future what you want it to be. I go on everyday and try and make the best of my potential. The chances, I need to make the best of them because you never know what the future holds.
Although football is a tough sport and you can learn a lot from it, the challenges of middle school and high school peer pressure and bullying can have an even tougher outcome on everyone throughout your entire life. Eventually everyone will be pressured to do something in their life whether it is good or bad. A kid might ask you to break the law, smoke, or drink. You might not think of the harmful things that you are doing to yourself or what the outcome of everything you do now. Not being able to play sports or concentrate on the things that are important in your life. I haven’t had to deal with things such as extreme as that, but things like that have happened to people in my life. Another thing that everyone eventually has to deal with is bullying. Kids and even adults may taunt you because of something silly that happened in the past. They might make fun of the way you look. You can’t help the way you look, unless you are very desperate to change. And every time believe it or not, you’ve been a bully. Those kids that aren’t as fortunate as you have feelings too. That kid you were swearing and saying crude things to, he takes them to heart, then he starts believing those things you said. It is hard to live and forget, that person will always remember even if it was just an accident or a mistake that really shouldn’t have happened. Bullying is a serious matter. People think they are just messing around with each other but really they are hurting someone else. You honestly have no idea what they are going through, you should be more supportive of them instead of bring them down. A true friend is someone that would do that for you. A fake friend is someone who makes fun of you and laughs at you because of something you said or did. Friends; you need them in your life to help you through the hard times of bullying and peer pressure, and laugh when you have a great time with them.
The game known as football is a national pastime. Football dates back to the 1800’s and it has evolved into the game people love, play, and watch today. Any young boy has the dream of being a superstar to play in the National Football League. All the prime time big shots go there, hoping to get large amounts of money for playing an extraordinary game. Skills develop at an early age, catching, throwing, blocking, and running. Kids just want to have a chance to play the game. Once these youngsters reach high school there is nothing that they want more but to play the game of football. Towns and cities from all over the state, and the country are very into high school football. Top of the line equipment, turf fields, and even athletes risking their lives for this game. Everyone wants to be good enough to compete with the best. They want huge college scholarships from unbeatable division one teams that can guarantee to get you to the promise land. Being a leader in football is a very big advantage. Playing the quarterback position is like being the point guard on a basketball team, or a pitcher on the baseball team. You have to guide your team to victory. I play football; the quarterback position is the spot where I play. On my part I need tremendous leadership skills to make sure we at least have a chance to come close to victory. In this book, Joe the new kid in school is very messed up; he had a very bad record at his old school. He signs up for the football team, and he needs to make the best of every opportunity. In my eyes, the author is telling me that no matter what the circumstances are and however the past may have been, always make the future what you want it to be. I go on everyday and try and make the best of my potential. The chances, I need to make the best of them because you never know what the future holds.
Although football is a tough sport and you can learn a lot from it, the challenges of middle school and high school peer pressure and bullying can have an even tougher outcome on everyone throughout your entire life. Eventually everyone will be pressured to do something in their life whether it is good or bad. A kid might ask you to break the law, smoke, or drink. You might not think of the harmful things that you are doing to yourself or what the outcome of everything you do now. Not being able to play sports or concentrate on the things that are important in your life. I haven’t had to deal with things such as extreme as that, but things like that have happened to people in my life. Another thing that everyone eventually has to deal with is bullying. Kids and even adults may taunt you because of something silly that happened in the past. They might make fun of the way you look. You can’t help the way you look, unless you are very desperate to change. And every time believe it or not, you’ve been a bully. Those kids that aren’t as fortunate as you have feelings too. That kid you were swearing and saying crude things to, he takes them to heart, then he starts believing those things you said. It is hard to live and forget, that person will always remember even if it was just an accident or a mistake that really shouldn’t have happened. Bullying is a serious matter. People think they are just messing around with each other but really they are hurting someone else. You honestly have no idea what they are going through, you should be more supportive of them instead of bring them down. A true friend is someone that would do that for you. A fake friend is someone who makes fun of you and laughs at you because of something you said or did. Friends; you need them in your life to help you through the hard times of bullying and peer pressure, and laugh when you have a great time with them.
Even though dealing with the harmful effects of bullying and peer pressure, losing your real friends may be even harder. Making friends is something we all do in life. Whether it is a guy or a girl, it really doesn’t matter because everyone needs friends. They need them for a social life, someone to hang out with, or even give helpful advice to. Real friends will always stand by your side even if you did something wrong, they encourage you not make fun of you. Sure, everyone jokes around but when things become serious you need true friends. I can relate to knowing who my true friends and fake friends are. I’ll still hang out with the kids that really don’t like me as much, but not as much as my true friends. They’ll back me up on everything and we have really great times together. If you ruin a chance with someone or mess up on test in school then your friends will help you through those things. In this book, Joe has to deal with being the new kid and having to make friends. He really isn’t into doing things like that. Everyone on the team gives him the cold shoulder except for some guys who really want to be his friend. Things like that have happened to me, people have ignored me. Turned me away because they thought they were all better than me, when really we are all equal. Some people you may not like, but that doesn’t mean you should be mean to them when they haven’t done anything to you. Family, activates, happiness, and many more are all things we need in our life. But friends are surprisingly important in our daily lives. Over the summer everyone is happy to be out of school, and they can hang out with their friends. You get bored on the days that you aren’t hanging out with your friends. You miss them and they miss you. When you finally see your friends and the people you love everyday then it is an amazing feeling. Just because you aren’t necessarily friends with someone doesn’t mean you have to be mean to them, which is a life lesson that this book has taught me.
Losing friends and gaining enemies is a tough thing to do. Dealing with peer pressure and bullying from enemies, maybe even friends can be harmful to yourself which may cause you to have bad thoughts when you really shouldn’t. These things can affect you because you might not want to play sports like basketball or football which I couldn’t live without if I thought these things. In my eyes, the Thomas J. Dygard is telling me that friends come and go. Right now you think you can’t live without them but truly you can. Also, that peer pressure and bullying really has affects on child and even adults. You could have hurtful thoughts and think nobody honestly cares about you. People do, even if you don’t know it. Lastly, he showed me that instead of taking your anger out on other people who you could possibly hurt them. Instead take it out on the field or the court. Plenty of lessons were learned in this book that I really had to think about. I enjoyed Halfback Tough because it taught me lessons that I didn’t even know existed. It will teach you great lessons about your real life too.
