Suddenly

Suddenly Chapter 5

Chapter Five

The Want

School athletics soon started and we had to get into shape with training sessions which allowed the teachers to select the athletes that would compete in the various races. I wasn't afraid of these races, I was the guy everyone was scared of, things just turned out best for me somehow. I had never seen myself at the top of the food chain but I was at the pedestal of athletics world.

My confidence was on a stress free apex when it came to my athletic ability to perform well in a race or physical activity but it had not been this way in the start. This burning want to win and be the best began when I was just a five year old boy. I stood under the 8am sun in line with my class at the assembly area at my primary school.

Most parts I was lost in an ocean of people and didn't actually know why I was there in the first place. I have vague memories of that assembly area but I do remember that Monday morning which inaugurated my feeble desire to want something more.

It all started when the teacher on stage called up a group of grade seven boys, he explained to the school and teachers that these boys were brave athletes who competed that past weekend in a school athletics tournament against the other schools of our town. These students walked up with abounding pride as if this was their purpose in life. My surveillant eyes watched on with the rest of us as the teachers praised them and serenaded them with shiny golden discs called medals and handed them a trophy each.

Right then and at the geographical spot my benevolent heart started to desire that shinny golden trophy. I wanted something that was beyond me, something that I could not earn, this reward was too difficult for me to have but I wanted it, I desired it, this wanting feeling burned inside of me from a tiny flame into a raging fire.

Fleets of thoughts engulfed my mind about how I would feel with a trophy in my hands for all to see. It wasn't much, all I wanted was just one trophy, that's all I asked for, what would my mum and dad say if they had seen me receive one of those? I'd put it up on the cabinet in our lounge area at home, thinking of it made me smile.

That afternoon after school I changed and got on my knees at the edge of the bed and I started to talk to God about what was on my mind, "Father I love you and I know you love me too, thank you for everything that I have, dad, mum and my brother, I have never really asked you for anything before but I need something from you now. Please can you give me a shinny golden trophy, amen".

I got up after that little prayer and continued with my day, TV and cartoons kept me glued to the sofa until dad got home from work. I'd pray that prayer for the next few weeks until I had given up on it, thinking possibly it was too hard a request for God to do for me. I didn't have a clue as to what was taking place but that little prayer that I had said at the corner of my bed was going to change my life forever. Sometimes the experiences we go through equip us as human beings with the ability and belief to take on new challenges because we know we have gone through worse before.

Three years had passed by like a gentle breeze and I had forgotten about that little prayer I had said. I was now eight and I wasn't anything special by any means. I had never been the best at athletics or any other competition; I was accustomed to being in last place and not being found in the winner's circle. Somehow I was selected by default and I found myself chosen to represent my school at a relay in an inter school athletics tournament, I had no recollection of what I had done to earn myself a spot on this team. I was sure that the coaches had made a mistake or possibly couldn't find a fourth person to be a part of this relay team so they simply picked the first person they could find which was me.

The school bus took departure around 7:30am that Saturday morning. The rain crashed against the windows of the bus like icy darts, the wind had a peculiar chill which seeped down into my bones.