“This is the moment…”
Dateline: The 50th Bassmaster Classic
There will be a moment when all your dreams come true.
When all the work will pay off.
When all the sacrifices will be worth it.
When all the prayers are answered.
“…when all I’ve done…”
There will be a moment that you will remember for the rest of your life.
And you will cry.
And you will shake.
And for a moment you will feel hollow as your entire being is sucked out of you, your entire meaning for everything you’ve worked for is lifted, and for a moment, a brief and shining moment, you will feel weightless.
And you will know, you will know that every damn thing you’ve endured to reach this moment, everything you’ve sacrificed, everything you’ve fought for will have been worth it.
Worth it.
For one of you, just one of you 53, in three days, will be a world champion.
Will be the champion, the last man standing, of the 50th Bassmaster Classic.
“…all the dreaming…”
This is the moment you knew would happen.
The moment you fell asleep to.
The moment you awoke to.
The moment you look into the bathroom mirror and see.
The moment that accompanied you during the miles and miles you drove alone while chasing it.
“…scheming and screaming…”
This is the moment that happened to me, one I’ve never told in public before but I want you, all 53 of you to know what awaits just one of you.
This is the moment when I found sitting on my desk at ESPN an award that said simply this, “New York Festival World Medal for Journalism,” and underneath it, was my name.
And after seeing that I walked into the nearest men’s room and puked into the toilet, then put the seat down, sat on it and cried.
This is the moment that took a quarter century of my professional life to feel.
This is the same kind of moment waiting for you that says, you did it.
You did it.
“…become one…”
Tomorrow you launch.
This is the moment that could be yours, will be yours for only one of you.
Here’s my advice to help this moment be for you:
Dare to win, dare to be great. Let not one moment on Lake Guntersville be wasted in doubt, be wasted in spinning out, be wasted in second guessing yourself.
Every moment counts, every cast counts, every experience you’ve ever had fishing counts.
Focus…focus…focus. These next three days will change your life if you are the one to hoist the iron, if something goes not to plan out there, let it go, let it go, and move on.
Force nothing, take what’s given.
Make the rest, the best.
This is the moment one of you will sail into a whole new life, this is the moment before your name is stitched on a banner that will be hung in the rafters for as long as we have moments like these.
Back not down from it, challenge it and yourself.
This is the moment when it is on you, rise to it, embrace it, shout at it, caress it, shrink not for this is the moment …
… this is the moment that has been waiting for one of you.
Make this moment, yours.
“…this is the day.”
This is the Moment
Jekyll & Hyde Musical
db
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”
— Henry David Thoreau