I’ve written about this before, about never discounting anything that may not seem knowledgeable. In other words, always looking for a lesson or little piece of wisdom in anything or anyone because there is usually a lesson to learn in it. With this in mind, I always seem to find myself listening intently and hanging on every word for any possible wisdom in it, whether it is in a conversation with someone or something as potentially brainless as watching T.V.. Well, in this certain circumstance is was Netflix that was a source of a lesson learned and some motivation and inspiration.
I tend to spend more time scrolling through the menus of Netflix than time I actually spend watching a show or movie. If you look at “My List”, there’s a good dozen shows there that I’ve bookmarked that I will never go back to. As I was mindlessly scrolling through the dozens of lists that Netflix suggests to you, I came back to “My List” and in a rare moment, chose something from there. The show I decided to watch was Last Chance U and I regret nothing. This show is about a school called East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) and their football team. Coach Buddy Stephens was brought in a number of years ago, and his recruitment and coaching methods are spotlighted in this docuseries… Wow, I should start writing the descriptions for Netflix… Anyway, what captivated me was that this coach, Buddy Stephens, didn’t go around looking for role model athletes with stellar grades and community leaders. Rather, he went around and found student athletes who have great skill in football but are, for lack of better words, down on their luck. For example, one of the starting linebackers for EMCC is a man who was kicked off of the Texas Tech Div 1 team for getting in trouble with the law. Other players have similar stories with the law, others have problems with their grades, but what I found very interesting was that this school was willing to give these student athletes a second (aka last) chance to achieve their football dreams despite mistakes they have made in the past.
I don’t exactly know why, but the show immediately resonated with me. Here was a story of a bunch of kids who made mistakes, or came from broken homes, and they were given an opportunity to either redeem themselves for their mistakes or break the perpetual vicious circle of poverty. Now, it was up to them to step up. I don’t want to spoil anything from the show, because if you haven’t watched it, you definitely have to, but it really got me thinking. The show itself proved a very apparent point, once again, one we have discussed again but is worth mentioning over and over again. Through the course of the three seasons of the show currently on Netflix, I came to realize that no matter how bad you mess up, no matter how hard you fail, if you are willing to look for an opportunity to pull yourself back up and onto the ladder of success, such an opportunity will present itself. That opportunity may be less than spectacular, but often, these opportunities after a failure or big mistake are often less than glamorous. For the athletes of Last Chance U, some of them had gone from living the life in Florida, playing football and partying, to screwing up and being sent to Scooba, Mississippi where there is nothing for them to do except attempt to study, play football, and play Xbox in their dorm rooms.
One thing I think we all often forget is that we have all been given opportunities to chase our dreams, and we will continually be given these opportunities. However, we don’t often take them because we may think they are below what we deserve, or the hard work needed to take advantage of the opportunity is more than we are willing to give. This leads me back to thinking, “How bad do you really want something? What are you willing to do to chase your dreams?”
I’ve come to understand that if you want something bad enough, if you really want it, you will be willing to put in as much work as possible to attain it. You will be sitting on the edge of your seat 24/7, just waiting for that opportunity, regardless if its handed to you on a silver platter or if you have to plough through a field of shit to get it. When you truly want something, you are willing to put up with a day, a week, or even a year of discomfort for a lifetime of true happiness.
Pretty surprising that a Netflix show would catalyze such a thought. And that’s what I mean when I say always having your ears open. What a lesson to remember: Failure is not the end, it is simply a test of character. Will you fold under it, or grow from it, eventually succeeding because of the growth you experienced from that failure. Never give up, just put your head down, and keep working hard!
