Over the course of the last few weeks, I've been attempting to read a bit more, in order to broaden my horizons; yes, I have more than one horizon. The messages which I've taken from the two books I'm slowly working through are simple, be aware of what can trigger your ego and learn to stay within the moment.

I'm set to break these two simple lessons and reminisce on years gone by and how those times helped to shape the person I am today.

There was a time in my life when I had aspirations of being the next "star" to come out of this town, truly turning the sports world on its head. Many people would point at my size and consider that the detrimental of my evolution as an athlete but then I'd jump and grab a basketball rim with two hands or blow by bigger and stronger athletes on the football field without overly thinking about the what if they catch me and attempt break my body in half.

I learned early, in order to compete with the bigger kids, I had to play bigger than what I was at the time. So often overshadowed by the kids with the physical attributes such as size, I began to implement my own brand into the mix; the brand being smarts, speed, and agility. The truth is if they couldn't catch me, size would matter.

For years I've been outsized and for years, I've ran faster, jumped higher, and thought around obstacles both on the field of play and in the field of life. There's something to be said about being an athlete or at least being an athlete that was coachable; you learn so many lessons from having an open ear.

A week ago, I put my drone in the air to see what images it could find and of course I found something familiar to me. To be honest, I've probably touched every corner of a basketball court in my lifetime. The transition from being athletic to just being has been interesting. My body has been riddled with injuries, some major, some minor, but all of them annoying.

The beauty in it all is that the world is still my playground and I can still get pumped knowing that each day will yield new opposition which I'll have to learn to work my way around before the clock hits 00:00.