Wrestling Blogs - Julie Stayton

when you are in a sport like wrestling, it is inevitable that one day, if not multiple times during your career, you will take a step back and ask yourself, "why in the hell am i doing this?" i've been asking myself that question a lot lately. sometimes it seems so absurd to be putting myself through all this pain and stress for six minutes of gratification. and i have to ask myself why.

and then it occured to me. why do i do what i do? because i can. because that six minutes of gratification is no small accomplishment. you get six minutes (up to 8 1/2 maybe) to prove that you're worth something; six minutes to display to the world what you're capable of; six minutes to show that you've run faster, worked harder, and trained longer than anyone else out there.

just six minutes. and in those six minutes, you get experience the greatest high of your life. the adrenaline, the sweat, the pressure of just you and one other person out on the mat, one on one; its like my own personal supply of heroine that i get to tap into everytime i compete. and for those few breif moments, nothing else matters. i can forget everything around me. there's no people, no teachers, no parents, no grades, no drama; nothing exists except for you, your opponent, and the referee.

its those six minutes of pure freedom that makes what i do worthwhile. it makes those two hour practices everyday after school easier to endure and those mile and a half runs at 6 in the morning possible, because i know, that if i just give my all in my training, i get to use those six minutes to make someone else wish they had. i get to use those six minutes to forget the srewed up world we live in. i get to experience a better high than any drug could ever possibly supply for an entire six minutes. and that is why im still here.