Tag: Understanding

300 Writing prompts Number 7: What is one of your greatest blessings?

Posted on by anele25

7 prompts into the 300 writing prompts and this one popped up for me and I would say that the greatest blessing is having family in your life. It’s funny you’re born, your parents have this thing called a child and they somehow have to dress it up. My family has been there for me to give me many things and you just wonder if sometimes it is luck of the draw. I know of friends and family where they struggled early on to gain any sort of familial support in their journey. I can say in my recent years that my family has supported with my decisions. The two things that I wanted to accomplish in the last ten years was to buy a car and finish school. I ended up accomplishing both in the last year and I could have done both without their support. I also recently noticed that no matter things may get or if you end up upset at each other at the end of the day, they will be there for you to welcome you with open arms. One example I can think of where they were there for me was when I had been going through my transition of going from community college to upper division at San Jose State.

 

I mentioned this earlier but I think what happened along the way was that they gave me the motivation to be better than I was. I needed the extra push from my family to do well because I saw them struggle when I was younger. I saw sometimes how my mom would come home sometimes at 6 at night from work taking the bus or my dad who would come sometimes at midnight from work. I would see the little sacrifices made here and there so we can enjoy a better life one day. Every year we would save up and go to Mexico to enjoy the family we had over there. This is before everyone had kids and had obligations and before the world started moving so fast. I felt that back then that my parents wanted to give their own blessings a little taste of who and what their families were like. I can remember every summer we would spend at Grandma’s and everyone was just free and on their own.

 

To me, this was a blessing behind a blessing because every summer we would see the same cousins and people we knew. I could see that my family wanted us to bond with our family so they can see that expanded family was also a part of us as well. My fondest memory of us all being together was back in 2004 as our time was winding down and me and my cousins were bonding over random conversations. You can see from the beginning that our family wanted nothing but the best for us. I’m grateful for these memories and many others. The human body is susceptible to certain illnesses and one that comes to mind was when my dad was going through a skin disorder and I had to take him and back and forth to appointments. The hardest part was knowing that this person was in your life and now you had to care for them. I bonded with my dad at that point because this was the period in his life when he was still going through his restaurant job as well. We would stay up and watch wrestling together on Mondays and now in some ways that was being taken away from me. He would ask me how and why these wrestlers were fighting and I would need to explain it to him. I was so happy about this whenever we would get the chance to do this but like I said now it was being taken away from me. The moments when I would see him struggle reminded me of the times when I would see him come home late after work and he would still be there to go along with his kids and enjoy their time together. Recently, I also remember my dad would say that he had nowhere as time has gone on, my mom has also started to show some signs of slowing down and this is the impending kidney dialysis that she has with her. I can see her struggling little more now and as time goes on I want to learn as much as possible within the next few years. My brother has given me one of his best blessings which his ability to guide me about various topics. I can remember growing up and the one line that always sticks with me is when I had gotten upset because I was unable to pass my DMV test and he gave me encouragement that day to continue forward. I’m sometimes grateful for him becoming my friend because I learned about how to talk and speak up to people.

 

Before, I was shy and didn’t know how to take things with people. I often credit my brother for helloing me finish my schooling as well because he didn’t finish school and often we look to our brothers for advice as well. As I go through my older years, I eventually want to be that blessing to my sons as well because the greatest gift you can give to a child is a life full of adventure, warmth, love and understanding of living. Blessings give us the ability to see that life works in a funny way. You’re stuck with your family and you learn to function with them every day. I can see as I get older that I am going to stare at whoever, somebody that I have next to me and see my own family growing right before my very eyes. These are the reasons I think we have blessings: To be able to show us that life can be a fun and exciting time as we grow and learn from each other. I also think the experiences we can provide each other as time goes on to talk about and laugh at these times are the wonderful times we can have. Till next time everyone.

Something to wrestle with and my memories of Bret Hart’s 1996-1997

Posted on by anele25

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The land of wrestling podcasts has recently taken over my life. The craze started not too long ago and needless to say, they help when you are washing the dishes, washing the car, or doing laundry. This is beside the point however; I want to cover today a recent podcast done by Bruce Prichard of something to wrestle with fame. The topic for this recent podcast was Bret Hart. If you don’t worry who that is, do not be alarmed you will by the end of this post. My memories of that time are quite extraordinary and full of joy. First, I’ll go through some major points that Bruce Prichard covered and then I’ll give some of my perspective.

 

The podcast does a very good job of painting Bret at this time as someone who could have an excellent match with anyone during that era. He worked with a who’s who of wrestlers. His matches included excellent storytelling, great selling, good flow, and a way of sucking you in so you could believe it. One of those matches was Bret Hart vs Steve Austin from WrestleMania 13. The match did a good job of telling the classic story of the cocky upstart who is being a rebel vs the proud hero who stands by his morals. Hart of course, was the hero who stood by his morals. The fans at the time were clamoring for a change and wanted something new. In storyline, the idea was to do a double turn and have one guy go ‘good’ and another go ‘bad’. Bret at this time was portrayed as being good and Austin as bad. The fans saw how much Austin clawed and scratched to try and win but to no avail. The fans by the end of the match knew that Austin had given it his all in the match and Bret was just being a bully by beating down on a limp body. That is why that match is (by those days), considered a classic. It works because it was believable and it gives credit to the performers that were out there. The match was bloody, full of hard hitting action, and kept you on the edge of your seat. More on these excellent feuds later on. One of my favorite pieces of the podcast included the insights into how the Montreal Screw job came about. The incident famously known as the Montreal Screw job was orchestrated in 1997 as a way to get the belt off Bret Hart so he wouldn’t walk away from the company with the belt.

 

The scenario was in place so that Shawn Michaels (the incumbent champion) and Bret Hart could have a finish even though one person was not clued in. Essentially, the original plan was for the match to end in a disqualification and there would be members of the Hart Foundation (Bret’s group and faction) that would run in and have the match end in controversial fashion. However, at the end of the match Shawn put Bret Hart in his own hold (the sharpshooter, which is where Bret would put his left leg in between his opponents’ two legs and turn the person around and sit on the person’s back until they gave up). The finish of the match saw Bret not give up and the referee rang for the bell. Needless to say, Bret was very upset at the end of this and realized he had been double crossed. After this, he left upset and even had the guts to punch his former boss, Vince McMahon. There has been quite a bit said as to the different scenarios that would have come into place if this situation would not have happened. I also really enjoyed the 1996 portion of this podcast because you also got an insight into Bret taking a leave of absence for his TV shows and to take a break. I also heard the first time that he got a call to come back in 1996 and he flat out said no. It was almost as if Bret needed time to recharge his batteries at time to be with his families. I also learned from this portion of this podcast that Bret was a very smart man when it came to negotiating for his contract and for what he felt was right. At this time, it was rumored that Bret would jump to the rival company, WCW.

 

He would have been one of the members of the newly formed New World Order. The spot that was originally meant for Hart went to one Hulk Hogan. It’s funny because if that would have happened he would not have as a successful run as he did.  Bret however, knew that he still had an opportunity to work with one of the new stars in the WWF in Steve Austin. I remember at this time also that the podcast mentioned on how Bret was always keen on making his opponents look good and how he worked hard to make sure that everything made sense. One of these times where this was true was where Bret did a USA vs Canada angle and he was very successful at having the USA fans hate him. I have gone off the rails a bit and I am going to just cover what I remember from this time period of 1996-1997. It may be bit scattered but for me it is how I remember it. Anyway, getting back to the USA vs Canada angle. I had a sense at the time that what Bret was doing was fairly interesting because he had fans on one side of the border hating his guts. In another country, he had fans still cheering him as their hero. I still vividly remember Bret saying ‘we don’t shoot each other on the streets and we still care for our sick’. Ironically enough, this was done in Canada. Meanwhile, in the USA the fans still hated his guts for being pompous about pimping his home country. It would be as if I went around from country to country and I would be liked or respected only in one or a few. I also remember the summer of 1997 was awesome because this was where Bret Hart famed one of my favorite wrestling stables in the Hart Foundation. Bret Hart essentially went ahead and gathered his family members to start this group. It was composed of four great wrestlers (actually three) in Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, and Brian Pillman. The other member was Jim Neidhart. All five men ran roughshod over the federation. The pinnacle of the group came when they ran up against Steve Austin’s team of himself, Goldust, Ken Shamrock, and the Legion of Doom. I still remember this match as being emotional for me because my hero had come back from injury in 1997 after having that great run with Steve Austin. Just to backtrack a bit, Bret Hart had finished his series of matches with Steve Austin (including the classic at WrestleMania 13) and he had run an angle on TV where he was out injured due to some complications with his knee.

 

As he was coming back, I remember this promo Hart was cutting with Shawn Michaels in May of 1997 where Hart was calling Shawn all kinds of names and questioning his manhood. At the time, I was not smart to what was happening and realized that the TV time was running out. As the show was going off the air, I realized that the show did not officially end. Little did I know (according to the podcast with Prichard), Bret forgot the cue and he kept talking. All these later, I still felt that was how the show was supposed to end. Anyway, back to the match where they went up against Steve Austin’s team. The event took place in Canada in Calgary. The crowd that night was electric for the show known as Canadian Stampede. As the match was starting, I was in awe that all these people jammed into one arena to see their fellow countrymen do battle. The Foundation ended up winning after about 20-25 minutes of some hard hitting action. The time during my life at that time was also when my family and I would go to Mexico on vacation. As the time was rapidly approaching for us to leave, Summer slam 1997 was also happening. I remember watching Bret Hart’s championship match against the Undertaker at my mom’s work. Some of these times are priceless as I remember being a little kid and being excited for what was to come next. I think that was one of the magical things about Bret Hart’s 1996-1997 run. I remember after each Bret match, promo, or appearance I would ask myself what was next for the Hitman. One of those that I could remember was when before he left for his hiatus in 1996, he had a one-hour match with Shawn Michaels. The match was famous for going one hour without pinfalls or submissions. I also remember that the match went sudden death and about a minute in, Shawn Michaels was able to get the win with his superkick. After the match, Bret took his time getting back and the cameras followed him back to get his reaction and needless to say he was visibly upset. I know from this incident, I knew from there he was someone who could hook my interest from the beginning of a match or from the end of the match because he made you believe it was real. One of those times where I first got a peak behind the curtain was when the film “Wrestling with Shadows” was released.

 

The film showed us the intricacies of wrestling and how deep his belief went into wrestling. You also saw how much he cared about his family. His immediate family he cared about because you saw that what he grew up was almost like a sport that you had to take into account. If you not have seen the movie, I would highly recommend the film because you see the ins and outs of what it is like to be a wrestler and how one of the best wrestlers ever got to where he was. I’ll leave everything with this as one of my favorite memories of that run in 1996-1997. I remember when Bret had come back in 1996 and Bret came back and said how loyal he was to the WWF and how he wasn’t going anywhere. I was so happy at that time because for one he said he was staying and he also for the first time accepted Steve Austin’s challenge for a match at Survivor Series 1996. The idea for me at that time was that Bret would always be a WWF guy. In 2002, after Bret had officially retired full time from wrestling I wrote a paper about his time in wrestling. I remember I got a decent grade on the paper actually. I also was so happy when Bret Hart returned in 2010 to the now known WWE. He had a memorable run in 1996-97 but I believe here it warmed my heart that he let old wounds heal after the Montreal Screwjob and he was able to show the new generation of fans his skills.

 

Well, there you have it. I just wrote some great memories and some of my favorite times of my favorite wrestler, Bret Hart. Over the next two weeks I will be traveling on some weekends to Los Angeles and then after that I will be having some surgery to heal up some kidney stones. What I want to do for my next blog is include some little journal entries on what these trips were like and I’ll probably write them in my tiny moleskin that I was recently given as a gift. Till next time, everybody be on the lookout!

A life altering experience…

Posted on by anele25

This past Friday I probably had one of the hardest events I had to take in. As I have written in the past, I have medical issues with my kidneys. Some of this is because of poor diet, lack of exercise, and not drinking enough fluids. The other part is mainly just genetics. Recently, I had the displeasure of having a kidney stone once again hit me. I missed a week of work because of it and the pain I went through was excruciating. I even ended up going to the emergency room because of it. I would not wish this upon any other human being and the only thing I would advise is to cut back on certain foods. I would also advise to get plenty of activity into your everyday life. I passed the stone eventually and everything was back to normal. However, when something like this occurs not everything is going to be bloom and roses. I had gotten a CT scan done when I went to the emergency room. The CT scan is done to see where the stone is and how big it is. The CT scan I had gotten done showed that something on my left side was not as it should be and this is where my life altering experience comes in.

 

The day was like any other. I had gotten up and made some food to start off the day. I went to the gym after and listened to my favorite Friday getaway show Figure 4 Daily. This show is generally great and makes me laugh anytime I listen to it. If you’re not familiar with wrestling, it is with former UFC fighter Tom Lawlor and MMA/wrestling journalist Bryan Alvarez. Both men break down the news in wrestling for the week and occasionally talk about the happenings of a  wrestling/MMA show that has passed. I eventually finished the show (and my workout) and headed out to the library to handle some miscellaneous business of looking at some books and printing out something I needed for a later date. Once I was done there, I headed to the doctor and over to the Urology department. I headed to the room thinking this was either going to be really good or really bad. I waited for 5-10 minutes and the doctor broke the news of what is considered surgery for my kidney stones. He first showed me the stones and described in detail the size of them. I have 2 stones in my left side (one about 4 centimeters in length and the other about 1 centimeter). The surgery goes by the name Percutaneous Nephrolothotomy. It is described as the removal of large stones. The procedure requires a sheath to be inserted into the back and a nephroscope is placed near the sheath to remove the kidney stone. This should do the job in terms of removing the stones and to me if this fixes it, I would be all for it. After the procedure a tube or a stent is placed inside the kidney to collect urine to make sure the blood flow goes as planned. As I write this, it is as if I am going through some shock but it also feels therapeutic to write about an experience which will make me feel better. Some of the side effects after the surgery could be blood in the urine, pain in the back, nausea and pain in the abdomen and kidneys. The information I just described is what the doctor told me except this was more of a cliff notes version. I also was told that the appointment would most likely be a month out because my doctor’s scheduler would not be available. I know once again that having to go through this is for the best and I have a great support system. I left the appointment feeling as if this was something that was meant to happen to me and it would test me. It also showed me the importance of cherishing those around me. I talked to a friend of mine after and this person made me feel at ease for the surgery that was to come. I was assured that they would be there for me for anything I needed and for me that was the greatest thing I could ask for out of them. I also talked to my mom and dad not too long after to talk about what was to come. I also got the assurance from them they too would be there to help out in this difficult time.

 

After that was over, I decided to start planning out some adventures the next month. I wanted to head back to Florida (I will cover this in long form in my next post), but if this is going to happen in the next month there is a possibility I won’t be able to afford it. My mom suggested that we head out to LA to Universal Studios which is somewhere I have not been. I also want to head over to the Wrestling Guy Store in LA (something else I would love to cover in long form down the line). I have also been planning to head to a wrestling show for a local wrestling promotion called APW. There are so many events that I would love to get done before this surgery and all I want for this to succeed is good discipline and careful planning. I can only hope that all goes well for this surgery and I know my family will be there to help out when it is all said and done.

 

One event I want to touch on is the recent death of a close family friend’s brother. He was someone I had a few conversations with when I was younger and I can say he taught me quite a bit in those conversations we had. He also helped our family out here at our house. I can remember him as being a kind and gentle soul. I remember the day of his funeral the people that knew him best remembered him as being passionate, hardworking, and someone who would be willing to teach anyone anything. My brother told me after the passing of this friend of ours that he loved me and I told him the same thing. Those little things like that make me know that no matter where you are, your siblings will never let you down as long as you keep them close.

 

As you can see, it has been quite the past few weeks and there is a saying that at the end of the tunnel there’s always that light. I am keeping this in the back of my mind every day I wake up from now on until I have my surgery and even beyond that when situations get tough. Till next time, I will be covering my trip to Florida from this past winter on the next post.