From the time I was little,I knew I was great 'cause people would
tell me, "You'll make it- just wait."
But they never did tell me how great I would be if I ever played
someone who was greater than me.
When I'm in the back yard, I'm king with the ball. To swish all
those baskets is no sweat at all.
But all of a sudden there's a man in my face who doesn't seem to
realize that I'm king of this place.
So the pressure gets to me; I rush with the ball.My passes to
teammates could go through the wall.
My jumpers not falling, my dribbles not sure.My hand is not
steady, my eye is not pure.
The fault is my teammates - they don't understand. The fault is
my coaches - what a terrible plan.
The fault is the call by that blind referee. But the fault is not
mine; I'm the greatest, you see.
Then finally it hit me when I started to see that the face in the
mirror looked exactly like me.
It wasn't my teammates who were dropping the ball, and it wasn't
my coach shooting bricks at the wall.
The face in the mirror that was always so great had some room for
improvement instead of just hate.
So I stopped blaming others and I started to grow. My play got
much better and it started to show.
And all of my teammates didn't seem quite so bad. I learned to
depend on the good friends I had.
Now I like myself better since I started to see that I was lousy
being great - I'm much better being me.
By Tom Krause
Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul
Copyright 1997 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and
Kimberly Kirberger