Charity

Now when I say charity, people probably think of food drives or fundraisers for the homeless. And while this is a quality of it, charity does not only pertain to physically helping others but to help them emotionally as well. This idea that people need help emotionally may seem foreign to some, as they feel that donating their money or clothes will be enough, but honestly sometimes what people need most is to know that they have the support of their friends and family. Fortunately, there are those within our society that realize the value of giving their time to listen to other people’s problems, even if it’s a small amount of time. And one of those members is my friend Joe Milici.

Like almost everybody else, I met Joe during Cross Country practice. At the time I was at the front of the freshmen pack, becoming the warm-up try-hard. Thinking that this decision made me appear as the fastest, I felt like the king of the world – thereby growing a, probably unwarranted, ego about my skill. As a whole, this trend of confidence boosters continued for the rest of my freshmen year.

Unfortunately, however, this trend did not continue for the rest of my high school experience. I was a sophomore now, no longer in the little kid’s league that was the freshmen races. I walked up to my race head held high and expecting to come within the top thirty people in a race of over one-hundred people. Let me just say that didn’t happen. In fact, besides the fact that I didn’t place where I wanted, I also ran an abysmal time: twenty-five minutes for a 5k.

Disappointed and distraught, my confidence was definitely knocked down a few pegs. For the rest of the meet, I became sullen and recluse, not genuinely engaging with my friends on the team. Wanting nothing more than to go home and forget about this travesty. What I didn’t know was that Joe had noticed my reaction towards this event.

Usually, when people know that someone is disappointed with their results, they say “you’ll do better next time” or “this one event doesn’t define your career.” While this may be true when someone is upset, and they hear this they think that the person saying it is full of crap. We know that they mean well and we thank them, but deep down we feel that they are only saying this because they did better than us.

Which is why when Joe came over, his choice of words remains with me to this day. He told me that, “yeah these results suck, no doubt about it. But instead of wallowing in self-pity use this feeling, let it take control and let it drive you towards success. Remember how you feel now, and force yourself to push past these barriers to achieve your goals.”

While this may appear to be trivial, these words have fueled me. By Joe taking just a few moments of his time to tell me this, he put me on a path to accomplish everything that I want – running and beyond. Without the inspiration of someone who actually took the time to make sure that I was ok, I doubt that I would be where I am now.