Everybody has their own struggles that they have to go through; so, I feel that being honest is very important. Showing people who you are and not always putting up a mask or a facade–not lying to yourself or to others and pretending that you're okay when you're really not is what we need to do.
When I found myself at school talking to other students, that's when I realized that I was in the same boat as many other guys. And, I realized I didn't need to be so worried. There had been many times that I talked to other guys and I just felt washed. Talking to others helped me realize that I'm not going through this by myself. I realized I don't need to be so stressed out like all my peers. We're all gonna get through. We're all going to get to the end. Just being able to talk to my friends and come into a community where it's so open really helped alleviate some of the stress that otherwise I would have been holding myself.
I've always turned to sports to take my mind off things. I feel like when you're out on the field, it's a different setting when you're in a classroom, like learning from a whiteboard. To get that fresh air–to just be a kid–that's the kind of thing I see that reminds me to be a kid with all my friends. As a grade 12, you want to experience it all before you leave. You want to just be there and do the stuff that you enjoy with your friends and make those memories. And I feel like that's exactly what stuff like sports allows you to do.
So both of my parents were born in Tanzania. It's in East Africa. Um, I actually visited Tanzania back in 2010. This one trip was definitely one of the more memorable trips I've been on. I learned so much about my history and my parents' history. It's part of what’s shaped me. When I visited other places, people weren't so infatuated with so many little things. Like, I saw kids playing soccer on the side of the road, and overlooking the ocean, like just so much stuff like that,... just basic stuff. It showed me how different life is and on the road I got that's something I definitely appreciate as well.
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