I was 12-years-old and playing with my friends on the playground. I think it was kickball or something like that. The sun was out, but there was a slight chill in the Oklahoma City air. At the Catholic school I went to, there were some tough kids. The neighborhood was full of lower middle-class kids, like me and my sister.
We didn't like taking shit, and neither did the other kids. Be that as it may,
there are always bigger kids. On this day, the ball we were kicking around rolled over to the big kids. I ran to it. One of the larger boys picked up the ball and instantly started teasing us. He didn't want to give it back. I walked up to him and told him to drop the ball and give it back. He approached. It was then that he pushed me.
I pushed back. A crowd started to form around us.
He was much bigger than me. As he started to come forward to me,
clearly in fighting mode, I told him, and the rest of the kids, "
I'm not afraid of you... I will never be afraid of you!" He said something about how I should be, but I reinforced my original message... "I will never be afraid of you!"
He grabbed me and we started wrestling. I kept telling him how I wasn't afraid, and I would fight him, lose and fight him again! What amazed me was that my messages threw him off... It wasn't that I had superior strength to fight him off - I didn't at the time. It was
how determined I was that took the fight out of him.
Power is in the mind, and in the heart! Power is bigger than you! Power starts and grows within you!
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