There is no word to describe the amount of anxiety I would have before a day of working with my uncle. All I could think about was the manual labor and the blazing sun. Temperature was always a major problem because I had to wear long pants to protect my legs from prickers and poison ivy. I despised weeding. I did not enjoy being on the ground for hours pulling vines out of the dirt for healthy people that could do the work themselves. My uncle is a great guy whom I respect very much, but he is a perfectionist. My family and I always ridicule him about having OCD. My uncle never sits still either, so I rarely had breaks. We took one lunch break for about 15 minutes which was not enough. I would often make mistakes because I would try too hard to not mess up. I knew he would not scold me for messing up, I just felt as though I had to be perfect. Working all day out in the sun was terrible, but I never quit. Eventually I saved up enough money and bought a blue 1997 Honda Civic.

Early, humid mornings. Lifting weights and running stairs. Flipping tires and doing sprints. As a freshman, I wanted to quit football because I never had to work that hard in my life. I was used to recreational sports where kids can stop when they are tired. In high school football I couldn’t stop when I was tired, I had to stop when I was done. The only reason I did not give up is because I knew I would be seen as a quitter and I cared what other people thought. I was not used to being pushed past my limits, but now working hard is part of my personality.

Attending football conditioning and going to work with my uncle on the same day was always terrible. Drained from football, I would not want to go work in the sun all day. I had lifted enough weights, I didn't want to lift 60 pound logs when we did tree removal. All I wanted to do the whole time was be at home. At any point in time, I could have given up on both landscaping and football.

During the 2015 football season, we played against an Ellington team who had one loss and it was to Granby. It was late in the season and we also had one loss coming from Granby as well. “Win and we’re in” is what Coach Nye kept saying all week. If we acquired a second loss, we would be knocked out of playoffs. We won the game 48-13, but it was the most difficult game of my life. Ellington’s defensive end was killing me on the pass rush and I had no clue what to do to adjust. Our quarterback kept getting killed and I was to blame. Finally, the fourth quarter rolled around and this defensive end was running on empty. He may have been extremely tired but I was just getting started. It was a very long fourth quarter for that kid and it was all because of conditioning. Conditioning put me into the best shape of my life so I would still have plenty of energy during the fourth quarter.  

If I had given up on either, I would not be as happy as I am today. The feeling before a football game is one of the greatest feelings in the world. I never complain about conditioning for football now because I know it is worth it. As a freshman, I was probably one of the worst players on the team but now I am willing to work hard. I am able to appreciate how easy my job at Saldamarcos, a deli, is because I know what manual labor is like. Although quitting can be the easiest way out, the rewards for persevering are so much greater.