I BottledUp My Sports Talent Permanently

Hello everyone, welcome back to escapades. Let us all challenge ourselves to get help for those suffering from Substance Use Disorders, or talk to someone or find help for that person battling with substance use.

Growing up, I was a very promising young man in all aspects. The academic giant and sports power hunk literally. I was good at almost any sport I tried my hand at; soccer, rugby, basketball, athletics, volleyball, table tennis, lawn tennis and chess. I was an all rounder.

In soccer I was a goal keeper in my primary school and also for Bugolobi flats on a few occasions when we played other villages. When I joined high school, there were better goal keepers so I tried my hand at striking and mid field but competition was too stiff for me.

I adopted rugby and basketball to fill in for soccer. However I had natural love for lawn and table tennis, well as athletics (I was a sprinter) came naturally.

A friend recently reminded me of a time in S.2 in high school when a terrible infection invaded the school, and if you showed any signs of it, you were straight away sent home. This infection came with a very high fever, severe headache and general body weakness.

I fell victim to this infection but I was not sent home because sports day was just two days away. My house was slated to win the 100m, 200m and 100*4 relay sprints, and my absence would have dented these chances.

I was carried to the pitch and when it was time formy race, I was helped to the starting line as other teammates waited for me at the finish line and carried me aside to a mattress. I did not disappoint. I remember feeling like my heart was about to burst and my head explode, but I persevered for my house. A friend carried me to receive my presents later that evening from the guest of honor, my house had won. And that is the story of the Mugwanyan Canon ball! (Let’s save this for another day.)

I excelled at rugby, was good at basketball and lawn tennis and table tennis and fair at volleyball. I once lost 2-1 to a national chess competitor, in a best of 3 challenge, a fact that left me feeling accomplished.

However, these are all but bitter sweet memories. Months down the road from that memorable sports day, I discovered alcohol, cigarettes and the night life. My sports prowess went down the drain and my dream of nurturing my talent to greater heights was permanently bottled up. Today, I look back and wonder what could have or could not have been! But I choose not to bury myself in sadness and gloom, so I channel all my energy into helping others avoid the path of destruction that I once took, and those already trapped in the abyss of substance abuse, I try to help them find their footing.

To the young ones, substance abuse is a dream killer, stay away from alcohol and other drugs. At FORE, we have both preventative and Recovery packages. Invite us to your schools, places of worship, homes, work places or community centres. Hopefully I will get to meet some of you. “Chains of habit are too weak to be noticed in the beginning, till they become too strong to break.”

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