My Ringside Analysis of Life

Personal log - 8th of July, 2006 (very early morning)

It's been five days since "MANO A MANO" or what's commonly known as the Pacquiao-Larios boxing fight. I mean, I'm no boxing afficionado, but hey, what could I lose, right? Anyway, it's also been days since the BP that I attended. Since then, both events have given me things to think about.

It may not be the best opinion of all, but I want to share my thoughts. I realized that life is like a boxing match. Life is like that fight between Larios (Chololo) and Pacquiao (Pacman). Why do I say that? Here are some points I've noticed:

• 1st and 2nd rounds. In the first two rounds of the fight, as Chololo and Pacman were throwing punches at each other, I noticed that both fighters were sizing each other up. No one really threw any major punches at anybody. I thought to myself, we are like that sometimes. In life, as we go through new things, we tend to test our waters. We try to size this new thing in our life up, see if we can handle it. Sure, life tends to throw us some easy punches here and there and we retaliate by facing up to those challenges. No biggie. We survive. And then, sometimes in the back of our minds, we tend to think, "This is no challenge. Bring it on!"
  
• 3rd round. In the third round, Chololo almost knocked Pacman down, when he gave a flurry of punches at the latter fighter when his guard was down. Pacman became a bit dizzy and maybe he was caught by surprise there. For a moment there, he stood by the ropes, as Chololo continued to barrage him with punches. There are times in life when we become too lax, too complacent. Sometimes we don't notice that after we've challenged life to "bring it on", we tend to relax thinking that life will continue to give us easy undertakings. But most of the time we are dead wrong. We are caught off-guard and we become confused and "dizzy". We sometimes tend to just stand still, and let life continue to give us its punches. But I'd rather, we decide to shake off that confusion and start dodging those hits. Like Pacman, we should decide to not let life control our game, but instead, let us control our life...
  
• 4th to 6th rounds. In this round, Chololo and Pacman exchange a punch after punch, the level and intensity of each punch increase more and more as each moment passes by. Sometimes, Chololo gives Pacman a good right hook. Pacman, on the other hand, returns the favor to the Mexican boxer. Eventually, if we decide to take on life and it's challenges we realize that the fight is not going to be easy anymore. We realize that life is really going to "bring it on" and is going to take it to the next level each time. Faster, stronger. That's how the fight felt. And that's how life feels sometimes. But we move on. We sidestep and dodge the blow if we can. Sometimes, we meet it head on. For as long as we continue to fight and not give up. It was also noticeable in these rounds that the Mexican boxer's face was starting to swell and get bruised badly. It bled. At times we end up becoming Chololo's. But we have to remember that he didn't stop fighting Pacman when his face started to bleed. NO. Instead, he continued to fight, despite the pain of each blow to his face. Despite the fact that his eyes blurred and burn as the blood from his wound dripped and ran to his face.
  
• 7th round. During this time, Chololo's face was becoming worse and worse. He was becoming tired. He was starting to slow down. He was deviating from their gameplan. Manny, on the other hand, calmly gave his opponent a punch or two here and there. Eventually, when he saw that the Mexican boxer's guard suddenly stooped, he took it as an opportunity to give the latter fighter his first knockdown. There are times where in we get so frustrated with what's going on with our lives that we deviate from our "gameplan". We end up throwing reckless and, most of the time, pointless punches here and there. Sometimes we are so focused on getting even with that person or with what's happening to us, that in some point, we let our guard down. This gives life to find other opportunities to throw at us to try and bring us down. Yes, sometimes we indeed fall to our knees. But like Chololo, we must stand up again, to face the next round.
  
• 8th to 12th rounds. In this round, Chololo staggers as he tries to keep up with Pacman. In this time, I think he has his 3rd facial bruise and it's way horrible than the other two he had in the earlier rounds. But Pacman is still in good shape. Also, the crowd calls out Pacman's name, not his. Sometimes in life, we hear people cheering us on in times of trials. Sometimes we feel so alone. Yet despite that, we should remain focused in what our goal is. If you feel someone cheers you on, use that positive reinforcement to boost you up to face life's harder challenges. But if you feel that you are alone, don't let that discourage you. Life didn't throw those punches in order to have people cheer you on. Life threw them to make you stronger, to make you ready for the coming punches. I've read a quote somewhere and it said, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." You may be given yet another knockdown, but don't let that stop you. Take a rest. Assess your gameplan. Assess your strategies. Then get back up. Never EVER give up! Unlike boxing, life has unlimited rounds, and it has unlimited challenges. Face up to those challenges. Go through all the rounds. One day, you will be victorious. However, if you quit, you become nothing... Not even to yourself...
  

The best thing about the fight that I've learned that whatever life brings us, whether it puts us up or down, we should always remember to stay humble. Humility keeps our feet firmly planted to the ground. Humility helps maintain a positive and healthy relationship with the people around us... Humility is our "pogi points" in this life, especially when we are successful.

Sometimes we are like Chololo, and sometimes we are like Pacman. It's not important if we win or lose. The important thing is that when we win, we win gracefully and with humility. If we lose, we stay humble, yet we learn from our mistakes, then move on...

Whoever thought boxing was just for entertainment? I respect both fighters for their strength and endurance during the match. Surely, I did learn something from that match, and hopefully so did you.

End log.