I am sure you guys think the title
of this article is a little bit odd and redundant. However, there is a very important story
behind this title. I was driving from
work on Friday morning; before I got home my gas light began to shine its amber
light as an indication that I should probably get gas before I ended up stuck
on the side of the road. I took this warming and pulled up to my local Kroger
to use a somewhat useless ten cents off at the gas pump. I turned my truck off; I opened the console to grab my Kroger card.
However, I was somewhat stupefied or amazed to find an old rubber band
bracelet. This bracelet wasn't some dumb Live Strong bracelet, or something
that was massively reproduced so that he could break on you two days after you
bought it. No, this was a bracelet that
I had received while playing for The University of Mississippi Football
team. As I held it and ran my fingers
through the letters P..R..E...S..S..O..N.. I began to have nostalgic flashbacks of Coach Houston Nutt in
the team meeting room preaching to us and motivating us. I was filled with happy memories and good
feelings.
This is
where the story goes a little south! As I pumped my gas into my truck, my cell
phone buzzed, it was another Facebook notification.
This time it wasn't a simple break up, or engagement, or photo, or even
a stupid comment about a few sorority sisters happiness on bid day (or even one
girl face planting in the grove when she was running to her new sorority house). It was a message about a young man named Ryan
Malone. Ryan Malone was a graduate
student at The University of Mississippi he was also a local who I had grown up
with and one of the first training partners I ever had. Ryan died overnight in his apartment, his
girlfriend found him and rushed him to the hospital but he was already
gone. Ryan was twenty-four and was to
finish his master’s degree this summer. As I drove home, I held that rubber
band bracelet.
Press On…
I
thought about Ryan most of the afternoon and even into training. I remembered
when we were in high school and how we lifted together. Ryan was your typical meat head and basked in
the glory of being one. He tried Power lifting,
but that wasn't his love; Bodybuilding was. Not to say he didn't have other
aspects that he trained. All I could
think about was Ryan and Press On. I began
to think about what Coach Nutt use to say all the time “These are the best days
of your life.” So I made a promise to
Ryan and myself. That every day from
this point on, I was going to live and train because these are the best days of
my life; I will train like Ryan would; attacking lifts and making progress by
fighting for it. I would press on during
days that I didn't feel right or on lifts that I missed. I won’t let others bring me down, and I won’t
allow myself to bring myself down.
Ryan, you had a profound effect on me. Without you, I wouldn't have taken pride in training. If I hadn't taken pride in my training I probably wouldn't have gone to college for football.
If I hadn't gone to school for football I wouldn't have met the coaches
that opened my eyes to the profession of Strength and Conditioning, or Olympic
Weightlifting. If I hadn't opened my
eyes to the profession of Strength and Conditioning, or Olympic Weightlifting,
I would have nothing right now. So from the bottom of my heart I want to say
thank you Ryan Malone. Without you, I wouldn't have had anything that I have right now. I wish you the best up there
and we love you brother.
PRESS ON……
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