Don’t Ever Count Me Out

A little over one hundred years ago, a popular politician from New York would write “The Man in the Arena.” The work describes the importance of action versus inaction, decision versus indecision, and work versus judgment of those who perform the work. 

The years have passed, people have come and gone, wars have been won and lost, and ideals changed to fit the needs of our current society. But one thing has not changed: the heart and tenacity of those so dedicated to their principles that the arena is within them, not around them.

I am only one example. I am the man you find at the gym at 1 am, not because I’m an Olympian or even a professional athlete, but because it is the only therapy I know. I am the man who gets into my car after working a full shift to deliver food in the evening for extra money. I am the man that passes the liquor section at the store not because I’m a saint, but because I’ve experienced many a time the sadness brought on after not just passing by it. I’m the man that, despite so much failure with love in the past, can sit knowing the love of his life will be reading this tomorrow. 

Don’t count me out. Don’t ever count me out. I may have been down on points, but I’m going out the only way I know, with one hell of a fight. 

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This first appeared in The Havok Journal on July 14, 2022.

Some people say, “You only go around the world once.” But Nader Gamez can tell you that it can be done a few times. Nader has a wide background of experience in his upbringing, describing himself as “Basically a Chicago street thug combined with border town Texican and a side of Madison Midwesterner.” He graduated with a BA in International Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a minor in drinking.