Life Is Truly Unpredictable

Dear, Freshman Jude

Well, you made it to high school congratulations, you have finally moved on from the school you attended for 11 years and now it’s finally time to do something different. Now you will be taking the bus to and from school every day from now on and Mom and Dad won’t drop you off or pick you up anymore. Stephan has already been attending O’Dea for 2 years and you went to some O’Dea football camps so some teachers and coaches will recognize you surprisingly. The only difference between you and Stephan is now this is about you. This year you will learn how to adapt from schooling to a new school setting, make new friends, and meet new teachers. Before the school year even begins, you will start off playing freshman football. Man, you had no idea what you were about to get yourself into. Before playing freshman football you had already played football for 3 years and you had your moments but now you need to step it up. On the first day of practice, you’re going to meet two brothers Jomo who sadly left leaves junior year, Jahi, and Jack. Crazy enough Jack lives only 15 minutes away from you and he coincidentally takes the same bus as you. You two are going to be friends for all 4 years of your high school career so you’re already starting off strong.

Freshman Football brings practice to a whole new level and for the next 3 months you’re going to be through hell, to make it even better you’ll be doing something even more intense after but trust me it’s worth it so let’s stay on track. After seeing who your teammates are you know you’re not going to be a starter, but you still try you’re best so I’m happy you have that mentality but long story short you will only get playing time when were up by 30 and it will be the last time you play football. I know that sounds rough that your football career ends like that, but the good news is that you have made some friends and now you’re not lonely. Before football ends, Coach Magee will mention that Coach Anderson runs his own program which is wrestling. You and Coach Anderson know each other not too well but enough to know each other’s names and backgrounds mainly because of Stephan. When you hear about wrestling, your first thought is “No thanks I’ll pass” but little did you know that sport would become your identity. Ever since football ended Mom and Dad have been trying to get you to do a winter sport but you have refused multiple times, but one day after church Mom and Dad finally made the decision and will make you sign up for it. You seem pretty upset that your parents threw you into a sport you didn’t even know existed but at the same time you thought there was nothing wrong with trying something new.

First practices come by, and you’re thrown right out onto the battlefield, basically, this first practice is like freshman football but 10x harder. Remember bear crawls? You only did that as a punishment during football but now you’ll be doing it as a daily routine, you’ll be working out parts in your body you didn’t even know you could. When you finish, you’re first practice, and its endless soreness but through the season you finish the practices, go 2-0 to start your career and end up making it to districts but losing a match you were one win away from making state from but overall, your record is 23-13.

Since you did so great let’s focus on wrestling and forget football. Freshman year seems normal until a worldwide pandemic hit. This completely changes your life and now you have an awful diet you look terrible and gained 17 pounds during quarantine. We're a couple of weeks before wrestling so you try to get in shape, but let's be honest, working out 2 weeks before the season starts won’t help you. Sophomore year you lose 3 matches in a row and the season is only a month. You finally step it up and you have a work mentality we have never seen before. Work out during e-school after practice and go on 3-mile runs on Sunday, so overall one day of rest. Now you start winning and find yourself in the Metro League Championship for the 113-weight class, guess what? YOU'RE A CHAMPION! What a comeback story from being built like a bag of milk to now being in the best shape of your life sadly that will be your own medal but that’s fine. You fall short again in the district junior year but put-up monster numbers in your matches. To finish your career senior year sadly you deal with a chronic knee injury and fail to make weight and don’t make it past Metros. Devastating. For a four-year wrestler, you had a great career and achieved many things you couldn’t even imagine and you are able to learn a life lesson from the amazing coaches and teachers you have had at O’Dea so never take your high school memories for granted.