# Chapter 128

“For too long you have questioned your potential.“ King

I remember Lisa S far too well. She was that Junior High School beauty queen, cheerleader, and super snob. She cut me totally pieces one day in the gym as I was trying to jump my plump jr high body into the air and tap the net hanging below the basketball goal. I didn’t even get close. She said as she passed by . . . well of course I can’t remember what she said 44 yers later (and this is a point unto itself), but it had something to do with my weight and my lack of athletic ability. It shattered me! By believing someone who knew me not at all, I floundered for decades. This one comment was not all that sent me in that direction, but it was a particularly sensitive and volatile time in my small adolescent mind. And so it begins . . . for too long you have questioned your potential.

Fast forward 44 years and Lisa S is now Lisa G and is an overweight woman who spends far too much time in front of her TV, and has accomplished far far less than her potential. I wonder why? Who said what to her and assisted in derailing her from all her potential? What brought her to question her potential and settle for so much less?

And I imagine that the whys and what’s matter to a point, but not as much as our society believes. The cause is just mostly simple human viciousness aimed at the fragility of an adolescent mind. Not sure at all that adult minds are any more resilient, but these are some of the causes, but what are the cures?

For me, strong wonderful friends and mentors picked me up over the years and put me back together, stronger and better than I could have been before. I am living my best maximum version of me and I am determined to help others do the same.