Young Writers Society

Life is like boxing. Whether you are willing to take the hits or not, they are coming for the knockout punch. Life hits harder than anything else imaginable. Mainly because it is normally a blind side haymaker to the face. Life does not fight fair. Cheap shots, elbows, below-the-belt uppercuts are the "norm". It will swing for the fences and if you get lucky enough to dodge one, the next is right around the corner.
Life stands in the way of your championship belt. Many people give up, some in the first round. The constant punishment and pounding from life is too much for them. They may throw in the towel sort-to-speak. Suicide is a terrible, costly option, but for some the invitation to end the battle early is all too inviting. The pain it causes the fans, trainers, other athletes is terrible. The wall that everyone eventually hits is the breaking point. They may have ran out of gas getting there, or just didn't have the strength to plow through it. None of us can judge those who quit early. It's not our place. It's unfathomable to some that they'd give up. We've all been effected by it. We've all cried for those we lost so early. Never doubt that we will see them again, however. The mental state of someone so desperate to quit can only be handled and judged by God, himself while Christ provides the mercy for forgiveness. Pain is inevitable, misery is an option.
Others of us, are in for exhibition matches. 3 to 5 round fights that get the crowd on their feet. These fights are filled with comeback stories, rookies looking for a chance, retirees fighting one last time, and shocking upsets that warm the soul. Sometimes split-decisions decide, other times knockouts. No matter what fight it is, there is always a breaking point that must be overcome. Like in the third round, maybe a solid uppercut thrown by life catches your chin and throws you to the ground. Maybe this one was called, death of a family member, loss of faith in yourself, dog died, lost job, divorce, heartache even. These cause some to quit here and accept however far they made it. Others plow through this obstacle and come up swinging, knocking life into the ropes and begin wailing on it.
For the champions among mere men, there are the championship belt fights. These are solid 15 round fights started with a bell ringing, ended by an ear shattering knockout or a bloody split-decision. Not many men finish these fights. These are where heroes and victors make their names, where dreams come to be accomplished, while others come to die. However, if you even attempt these bouts, you will be remembered just for the attempt. Life knocks these men down over and over again and they get back on their feet throwing fist after fist, blocking hook after cross, and taking jabs to the nose. No doubt at the end of this fight you will be bruised, beaten, scarred, and bloody but your name will be up in lights and your dreams will be waiting at the announcers' table. No man has ever finished this fight and said, "It was not worth the price I paid." Men only reach this point by rolling with the punches. They get knocked down and have to decide how much they can take, and keep moving forward. They take the deaths of their parents at a young age, or the loss of a sibling at war. They deal with the loss of a child followed by the unemployment line. They listen while people try and break them down and then they go out and disprove every single retort people had to their dreams. They sit through school waiting for their opportunity and when it comes they walk the walk and deal life a solid blow to the jaw. It is never easy. There were easily points to settle down and quit chasing their dreams. They could have lied there and waited for the count of ten, but instead they stood back up and won the round by persevering. Divorce, death, heartache; pain is inevitable, but misery is only an option. Faith, love, and hope overcome it all, my friends. If you are going through a hard time, please persevere. Never listen to the voices telling you are not good enough, saying to you that you will never make it. ESPECIALLY IF THAT VOICE IS YOUR OWN, as in my case. May God bless you all, whichever faith you may be of.

Don't forget, when life knocks you on your knees, you're in the perfect position to pray.

Interesting and very inspirational. I'm glad it's put in other because it really deserves that.

I am actually going through a tough time right now and it does feel like life is like a boxing match. I love the description in this, especially because you never thing of life being that tough. I'm glad that you touched on the suicide, but kept going because LIFE isn't just about suicide and giving up.

I did enjoy it and found it very helpful. There isn't a lot for me to critique, mostly because I find it so wonderful. Keep being inspiring.

-Nana

This is inspirational. It's raw and heartfelt and I appreciate the piece because I know that most people in the world feel the same way, including me. Thank you for the post, and keep up the good work!

A very good post. I don't know anything about boxing still liked it. You really do summarize life in there. The small victories, the overwhelming defeats, and the people who give up. You're right; we shouldn't judge those who give up. We can tell ourselves all we want how we would have reacted differently in such a situation, but we can't truly know that until we are in that situation. Thank you for this post, and God bless.

I disagree; life is more like hockey

Just kidding, this was pretty awesome. I'll just let you know of a couple issues with grammar, not form or content: in the first paragraph, a bit of a misplaced modifier in the first paragraph ("Mainly because it" should be something along the lines of "Mainly because the hit") and unnecessary quotation marks around "norm." Second paragraph: "sort-to-speak" should be "so to speak" and "effected" should be "affected." Third paragraph: unnecessary comma in first sentence. Fourth paragraph: "lied" should be "lay."

The piece was a bit rambling, but I feel like you intended it to be that way. Keep writing!

Quite nice. I didn't find as many grammar issues as I expected, most have been pointed out. I think you need to fix your punctuation. You use alot of unnessesary commas (ie: others of us, --- mere men, ) these points aren't seperate ideas, they flow together into eachother and a comma, slash, or colon isn't needed unless reinforcing an idea or adding statements furthur on.

Make sure to spell out numbers in literary works unless you're telling a time.

Aside stuff like this, little things, and the fact that I've heard many of these inspiration pieces before (I would've listed this more under story than poetry) you have a solid piece here. Strong voice, depth to the words, and emotion bleed through this piece and allow it to take on a life of its own. There's personal emotion here, and that brings out the best in writing.

Well done.