Everything I need to know about life I learned from M

I met M when I was a child. I forget the precise date, I wish I could forget the incident, but it is forever seared into my memory. It is just one of those things that you can't forget. At that moment a number of things became clear to me, including some of the things that would happen to me in the future.

I was a 10 year old child, I got one of those fancy swimsuits, the style of the day were to have these stupid zippers down the font of them. I thought it was so cool, and I was already a C cup so I pretty well filled it out. I really enjoyed that the suit had these bright colors on it. What can I say, I had a fashion sense even then. Anyway, this was the wrong kind of suit for me as it would turn out. My dad took my brother, myself, and a friend of my brother's swimming at this pool in town. Little did I know that M was there or what events would unfold. I was swimming peacefully in the pool and got up to get out of the pool to go to the bathroom. Unbeknownst to me, but very well noticed by M, my brother's friend had unzipped my suit. There was I was hanging out, full C cup...drenched in the water. I wanted to die. I came up out of the pool and right about the same place that M was.

Feeling this desire to just die on the spot because I knew very well who he was, I couldn't really say anything. He said it all though, he zipped up the suit and said "Remember, it's all mental. The game is ALL in your head and that's true of life as well." He then proceeded to chastize my brother's friend quite severely for the incident. My brother knowing who M was, was very embarrassed. I was for them as well. M then addressed me and said to play hard or go home. I went back to swimming.

I've since been able to follow his athletic career and read various interviews of him and have been able to glean other pearls of wisdom over the years. Everything I needed to know about life I learned from M and a Kenny Rogers song.