RISING UP

I watched in awe as this young child toddled, very determined and passionate about taking the steps. Her mom called on and I could see the happiness on her face. When asked why she was so excited, she answered with another question, "don't you know there's nothing that beats seeing your child take his/her first steps or seeing them pronouncing their first words or being there for them when they need you most?" The child herself was not giving up, full of great energy, zeal and vigour, the excitement of walking towards her mother was written all over her. I became so carried away by this kid that I was smiling broadly and started clapping for her. She looked towards my direction and not for the first time fell, rising each time as well, sometimes with the extra help of the mother. I also noticed the direction of her hands, well placed in front of her belly, clapping all along, I guess it was to encourage herself.

I visited few days later and I realised she had perfected the steps a bit, she was a little bit slower and the only time she fell (unlike before that she rushed to take the steps and fell after 3 or 4 steps) was whenever she took her gaze from the destination. With her face set on the destination, she reached it quicker than expected.

Let's talk a little bit of sports, we'll start with Tennis, then cricket before ending with football.

It was the final of the men's event at the second Grand Slam of the year (Wimbledon), the whole world watched on as Roger Federer and Marin Cilic battled it out on the hard court, here's the point of branching here (tennis); it's very unusual to see players falling while playing tennis, but a lot of falling down was seen at the SW19 arena, but each time any of the aforementioned fell, he would quickly rise up again, trying not to get caught up while lying down.

Now to the sport called Cricket (a sport not common in this part of the world though), the way/velocity at which a catcher jumps to catch a flying ball after it had been hit by the batman is scary, the jump is always high, thus, making their fall even scarier. What I therefore noticed is that after falling, the catcher immediately rises and throw the ball to another player. Therefore no matter the rate at which a catcher falls, he rises up and continue the play.

If you don't know anything about tennis or cricket, you must definitely knows one or two things about football irrespective of your sex. Football, a game where body contacts is unavoidable, therefore falling is easy and common. Best of footballers are prone to falling down because of the so many tackles and knocks they receive during the course of the game. Football is also a game where falling easily or without a contact in order to con/trick the referee to gain favour is severely punished. Nigeria and Chelsea FC player, Victor Moses got himself sent off in the 2017 English FA Cup final match against Arsenal FC when he tried to deceive the referee by going down inside his opponent's box without any contact. The same happened with Celta Vigo's Iago Aspas in the penultimate fixture of 2016/2017 Spanish La Liga season against Real Madrid. We can thus say that falling without a reason is punishable.

Generally in sports, if a player falls and fail to rise up all by himself/herself means a disaster. It's either a fatal injury or worse- concussion or even death. Therefore we could deduce that, falling down is unavoidable, moreso falling down without any reason is punishable, and rising up after falling is very important.

Enough about sports, let's bring this into our day to day lives.

Every now and then, we stumble and fall, we fail to meet the standards we set for ourselves and the expectations of people around us. John F. Kennedy once said; "The courage of life is a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy". Though it becomes embarrassing if we stumble every other time on a particular thing. We must learn by avoiding the same barrier we once stumbled on, that's improvement on our part. Nathan Scott in OTH 3x20 talked about stepping up, he said "stepping up... It's a simple concept. It basically means to rise above yourself, to do a little more, to show you something special. Every once in awhile, people step up. They rise above themselves. Sometimes they surprise yo, and sometimes they fall short. Life is funny sometimes, it can push pretty hard, but if you look close enough, you find hope... in the  words of children, in the bars of a song, and in the eyes of someone you love. And if you're lucky, I mean, if you're the luckiest person on this entire planet, the person you love decides to love you back. I add it that, stepping up is not making the same mistake over and over again. When kids learn to walk, they keeps falling; but to them it's not falling, it's learning. So there's nothing called failure, everything is a lesson.

Walking around with a closed eyes and a tied hands lead to fallen, and difficult to rise, Lionel Luthor while speaking with his son in Smallville 1x01 said; "you have a destiny, you'll never get anywhere with your eyes closed.

You know, in life, if you let it, you can always come up with reasons to give up, but if you don't, you might just find love and strength in places you never imagined- in a new relationship or in your work or in your children. Whatever it is, just don't give up on i, and if you don't get it  you might get something better. - KAREN ROE (OTH 5x12).

So what do you do? The most important thing is not to be bitter over life's disappointments. Learn to let go of the past, and recognise that every day won't be sunny. When you find yourself lost in the darkness of despair... remember that it's only in the black of night that you can see the stars, and those stars will lead you back home. So don't be afraid to make mistakes, to stumble and fall, because most of the time, the greatest rewards come from doing the things that scares you the most. Maybe you'll get everything you wish for. Maybe you'll get more than you ever could have imagined. Who knows where life will take you? The road is long, and in the end, the journey is the destination. -WHITEY DURHAM (OTH 3x15).

Success is not a day’s job, it is a daily job; Success is not a destination, it is a journey. What’s the point of having a dream if you plan on chasing it forever? You can’t spend your whole life dreaming, you need to wake up at some point and work your dreams out. You can’t spend your whole life wishing things will be different in the future when you have failed to make things different in the present.

In this New Year, Start up now! Yes, now! Start up with your visions now that the year is so young. Don't be intimidated by how big the vision seem,  there will definitely be a way for its fulfillment... That vision is achievable, that project will bloom. 2018 shall be a year of fulfillment for you.

Believe me, people loves a guy who rises from the ashes.

Remember, you have so much to offer the world, if only you could see it. Rise up, stand tall, walk with your head high, you are meant for greatness.

LIVE THE LIFE... LIVE THE DREAM, NO FEAR.

This is from me to you, Happy New Year, Friends.

AUF WIEDERSEHEN... I am OLANIYI ADEWALE HEPHZIBAH