I was so close... so close to finishing my current book (Urban Lullabies, Volume 2).  I often think to myself, "how can you pause a project that's so close to being complete?"  Well, the answer is simple - personal preference and priority. 
 
I became a sports addict at a very young age.  Aside from Brylon, sports are probably the most important thing in the world to me.  I love to compete.  I love the feeling of knowing that someone looks at you and immediately becomes intimidated.  Even more than that, I love when someone sizes you up, and you can tell immediately that they are underestimating you.  I take that as a challenge and explode all over them. 
 
When I wasn't competing, I was working out, preparing to compete. I love that aspect too.  Most people have no love for the blood, sweat and tears that go on away from the spectators' vision.  Not me!  Love was instilled in me for that side of the game also.
 
Then one day, about five years ago, seemingly in the blink of an eye, that was all taken away from me.  I began to suffer physically in ways I never thought I would.  Things that I had taken for granted just vanished.  It was a devastating blow to me.  One week, I was playing tennis, basketball, football, weightlifting, etc etc etc... then the next week, I was in physical therapy.  Over the next five years, I progressively got worse.  I underwent more tests than I could ever dream to endure, and never was a problem specifically identified.  Assumptions were made, but never proven.  I was in a state of mental torture, everyday.  I was in physical pain, everyday.  And worse, no one ever fully could understand.  It's hard for the average person to understand how an amateur athlete could be so closely bonded to his own "athletic career."  No one could understand my personal loss.  I remember a basketball game I played in at my job.  It was in 2003.  I scored 40 points, played the whole game, left there and went to the weight room.  In 2006, I came off the bench in that game.  In 2008, when the same annual game was played, I couldn't even take the court. 
 
Recently, I decided to ignore everything said by the many doctors I've visited over the past half-a-decade have said, all the limitations they put on me.  I disposed of all medications given to me by these men of medicine.  I decided that I was going to lose weight and return to the old me.  I decided I was going to learn how to eat right, learn how to take it easy in the gym and work my way from nothing to something, and you know what... it's working.  I've already surpassed what almost every doctor has told me that I would be able to do.  I've already lost about 30 pounds.  I've already changed my entire lifestyle, personality and mentality, and I'm just getting started.  I'm no where's near the goals I've set for myself, and I won't quit, I won't ease up, I won't even maintain until I get to those goals.  So if some other things have to suffer and take a backseat in the process, so be it.  I can only be me.  At the end of the day, no one else is going to make it a priority to make me happy; therefore, I make it my own...
 
See you at the finish line...