#& like he was providing for his entire family & was hoping to become a professional football player for that very reason.

[marcsnuffy]

I love Barou but if I was Naruhaya Asahi I would've been praying for his downfall

[ready-to-obeyme]

[OM!] (American) College!AU Demon Brothers

Scenario: Headcanons on the demon brothers as college students (specifically in the US because I don’t know how college works elsewhere), their possible majors, career goals, extracurriculars, ~GPA~ and whatever else I could think of + how meet you in college

Note: I’m hoping to do a Part 2 with the Undateables but honestly… we’ll see lol. This is based off something ~A~ and I thought of for our specific university but we’ve made it broad enough to share HAHA this turned out VERY long

- 

Lucifer

Majoring in Political Sciences with a minor in Psychology

Pre-Law-- most likely immigration law or child custody (there’s definitely a backstory here)

Initially went to community college for the first two years to save up money to take care of his younger siblings

Rejected an offer to go to an Ivy League because it was too expensive; if his siblings ever found out they’d be furious that he’d give up on that chance, but he knows he can succeed wherever he goes (and besides, family is first) 

Transferred into a 4-year university his junior year 

Very high GPA-- VERY

In a professional fraternity with Diavolo and Barbatos 

He didn’t think he’d join one either but Diavolo was the vice chair when he transferred in and the president the year after so… ~nepotism?~ and also Lucifer is charming as heck so no surprise he’d get in

Also rooms with Diavolo and Barbatos

Goes to the gym regularly just to keep fit; gets goaded by Diavolo and Satan into joining an IM team with his frat brothers and actual brothers-- probably basketball or flag football

Probably meets you at a interclub council meeting and mutters under his breath how useless the board members are and you overhear 

“Never have I met more incompetent people.”

“Lmao mood”

“!!!”

Keeps sitting next to you at every interclub meeting then after because at least there’s someone that can keep his mind stimulated (thinks you’re hot if you’re competent btw)

If you somehow meet him on campus, he’s the type of guy to put his hand up and pretend he didn’t see you (just kidding, he always ends up saying hi anyways) 

Will Absolutely Lecture You if you are procrastinating on studying especially if your midterm is, like, TOMORROW

Always ends up studying with him because he’s actually focused on studying and glares at you if you get distracted (but hey you get good scores in the end)

Mammon

Majoring in Business Econ/Economics, Minoring in Statistics

(always ends up in the middle of the “is econ a humanities or a STEM major” debate that leaves him left for dead) 

Planning to work in Business as Finance -- probably has been treasurer or finance director for a club; can even see him being a banker if it suits his plans better

Goes to a four-year university

Decent GPA (or Lucifer would absolutely destroy him), and does REALLY well in mathematics classes

Would room with Lucifer and his posse if they all go to the same school 

Probably in a Business Frat as well because he’s pretty charismatic when it comes down to it but  was an RA for some of his years for the free rooming and dining hall privileges 

Is a very chill and understanding RA (as in he smokes weed with you when he’s off-duty) but is surprisingly well-versed in dealing with roommate issues

Works part-time (gasp) to buy stuff off of Amazon and go out to places 

Spends a lot of time exploring places with his friends, going hiking, rock-climbing, clubbing-- which is expensive, as it turns out, so he needed to be able to afford it somehow

Meets you when you’re eating your lunch outside somewhere and he asks you if you have a dollar he could borrow for a vending machine snack

You exchange numbers with him so he can pay it back (even though you honestly don’t really need it, but why not) and turns out he’s in your GE class

“Heyyy wassup! So glad I have a friend in this class” 

“Oh by the way, did you finish the homework? Haha, I forgot it.” 

Mammon always repays you for your help in food though so you aren’t complaining

Leviathan

Majoring in Computer Sciences

And honestly that’s too much for me already-- the man is doing computer programming, coding-- WHEW-- and they do NOT rest

Goes to a community college but honestly has no problems cinching internships. The computer is his domain-- online applications are EASY, doing projects NOT as easy, interviews? HARD-- REALLY HARD (someone help him)

Probably intends to work with a big company like Google if only to help supply his income so he can live his life going to AX and buying merch 

Most likely moved out of his house mid-college with his online friends (who are luckily compatible with him living-space wise) and visits home once a week 

There’s two potential sides you can meet first: 

Either you meet him at a convention and you both gush about the same character and anime and somehow find each other online (not college related) 

Or his favorite Ruri-chan keychain gets broken off in the computer lab, and you’re the one running after him to give it him

He may or may not owe you his life after that (and if you enjoy anime, well that’s a bonus)

Both of these meetings can happen if he doesn’t recognize you in class because you were in cosplay-- imagine the surprise

The two of you as friends are MASTER PROCRASTINATORS at every assignment the two of you have-- so low-key not a great influence-- but you have fun together watching animes, playing games, talking about life-- anything but actual work 

Always ends up scrambling to finish things-- but he keeps doing it because it’s been working for him so far

You help him prepare for interviews because he’s always nervous before each one regardless of how well his application looks

Satan

Majoring in Comparative Literature AND Anthropology (ya boy is doing the whole nine yards)

Planning to get his Master’s and then a PhD in one of his majors (whichever proves to be more engaging for him)-- visibly excited to become a Professor

College was meant for Satan-- like REALLY; the man is in LOVE with learning; most likely to go and be accepted to an Ivy-League after Lucifer but... truly believes you can get a good education anywhere so it depends on his financial standing (and how much scholarship he gets)

Does get a little disgruntled when his classes aren’t available but doesn’t mind learning something new-- if the professor bores him to death, he’ll read the book

Really good at tutoring people; someone suggests that he works as a peer-learning facilitator/writing tutor and he does-- might as well make bank doing something you always do anyways   

Joins a writing/journal club as an extracurricular and a club that provides tutoring services to the underserved community-- surprisingly good with kids!

He knows friends in high places, so if he wanted to, could get into any party without batting an eye and his favorite professors love him

Spends a lot of his time going out to the city and exploring places, similarly to Mammon, rock-climbing, hiking, paragliding-- anything

He is VERY well-rounded as you can see; competes with Lucifer to see whose GPA is better though

You probably meet him during office hours, and you can only stare in awe as he asks questions that you had in mind, but better; if you’re visibly confused about something, he’ll take his time to help you too (it’s habit at this point)

Ask him for his contact info and you’ll get it, and maybe repay him in coffee? (You always see him at the cafe on campus.) 

Most likely to have a specific spot in a cafe that he is always at that the workers actually save a spot for him or give him his usual order before he even arrives-- may or may not have helped them edit their essays or with their homework as a thank-you so you KNOW they’ll love him forever

The type of person to help you make flashcards and cram if you need it

Asmodeus

Majoring in Dance and Fine Arts (I HC going to NYU specifically)

Considering going for an Master of Fine Arts degree but he might just move to New York and go for being a Broadway Star

College is mainly just training for him and hoping to land gigs in local theater-- and the university theater if there is one-- and building his resume for his big break 

Has SO many extracurriculars, all pertaining to his career choice, but also because he enjoys what he does: drama, competitive dance team, acapella, fashion design

Makes an unbelievable amount of friends, incredibly good at networking

The first time you saw him was when he was performing for a local theater and you were in love with his performance, and the next time you saw him in the hallway of a classroom building, you told him how much you enjoyed it

Always accepts compliments about his looks with grace, but there’s something about truly being admired for his acting and singing that has him preening

Invites you to come out to his next performance, and if not his, then to another play-- and it can be a date, but up to you ;) 

The man is the KING of Multiple Talents and has big dreams to match 

Always finds a way to hang out with you and drag you to every club that he can use his fake-id for (and when he’s actually 21 and above, gets a little offended that he doesn’t get ID’d) 

A night in the town with you is always a good night! 

Sometimes when he has practical exams coming up, he asks you to watch him perform-- and he likes your compliments but actually takes getting all the moves seriously so you better pay attention!

Most likely to move far away to reach his dreams, but he would take you with him if he could-- his little star

Beelzebub

Majoring in Physiological Sciences

Pre-Nursing or Pre-Sports Medicine 

He’s a little undecided, but he’s definitely going to go into the health field because he likes the idea of being able to use his strength to help others

Gets a scholarship from the university because he’s part of the football team, which is actually pretty hard on him because Fall Semester/Quarter he has to keep skipping classes for games  

Always brings a snack to eat with him during lecture-- and is not afraid to bring his entire lunch and make it right in the front row, though he tends to stick to the back because they tend to have electrical plugs 

You most likely meet him during lecture: he offers you an entire sandwich (not a chip bag, not fruit snacks, an entire LUNCH) because he heard your stomach growl during class 

From then on, you collect notes for him when he’s gone from games and even go to games if you aren’t usually the type to just to see how he’s doing; it’s hard trying to find you among the huge bleachers, but he always asks you where you’re sitting anyways 

Really appreciate it if you help him study into late at night because it IS hard balancing sports and academics 

He most likely doesn’t really have any time for anything else so he usually makes up for it during the rest of the year when training is less to volunteer in the hospital or at the gym as a personal trainer 

If you ask him to teach you how to properly lift weights, he’ll definitely help out and the both of you can work out together-- though you feel bad when he has to add four extra weights to each side after you finish your reps

Belphegor

Majoring in Computer Graphics/Animation

Intending to go into making animation or game design-- is one of the brothers who doesn’t really know exactly what he wants to do yet because he’s afraid that doing what he loves as a job will ruin it for him

His family reassures him that they’ll support him whether or not he continues with his path in life, but he’s considering art school and then taking internships in places so he has a better idea on what he wants

Most likely to sell his own original work and become a full-time artist regardless

I think you already know how you meet him-- he’s sleeping in a lecture hall-- either against the wall or on the small piece of wood they call a desk when class ends and he’s still sleeping; and you wake him up 

Sleepily thanks you and continues to sleep through every class that you wake him up to; when you ask him why he doesn’t just go home and sleep, he tells you he’s too lazy to walk back and forth from his dorm/apartment to campus (mood) 

When you add each other on Snapchat or something, he sends you pics of ‘places to nap’ on campus

You always end up studying together because he’s actually pretty good at understanding lecture stuff despite not being awake for most of it-- apparently he’s used to teaching himself 

Will make you art for your birthday and will vehemently refuse payment so he just tells you to take him out for dinner instead 

If you talk about how you’re not sure on what you want to do in life too, he’ll probably say ‘mood’ but is most likely to encourage you to do whatever you want to do in life too 

[pianoandcookiedoughlover]

*grabs a tissue and wipes at tears*

that’s the end of s5 folks

we’re just gonna do this chronologically because i don’t even know where to begin besides the start so . . . yeah

starting off with this shot

(sorry it’s such bad quality)

i almost fell off my bed

enough said

oof, okay, jamie vs mike. 

i may be crucified for this, but i actually think there’s some truth in what jamie said about mike wanting him to go to hawkstone because he couldn’t. 

mike has always been very invested in jamie’s football/soccer career, always helping him train, buying him equipment, offering to coach. and yes, of course, having a supportive parent/guardian is amazing and not everyone is lucky enough to have that. but as the seasons have gone on, some of the things mike says/does makes me think his intentions aren’t simply: “i want to be supportive for jamie.” 

i first think of that time that jamie was planning to go to foxborough (that’s such a weird sentence, oh my god). the coaches there didn’t want their players to have any outside coaching, and mike got pissed at that. now why would someone who’s been such an advocate for jamie getting proper coaching and becoming a professional get annoyed at a club who is offering to get him to that point (now, that isn’t to say foxborough are angels. i have issues there as well)?

and what sort of solidified this for me was his reaction here:

saying that he’s supported him through everything may be true, but it’s all been in the realm of football. jamie has never been interested in anything else (whether he’s been exposed to anything else and encouraged to do anything else is unknown) and so mike really has only been able to support him in football. he doesn’t do anything else.

and now that he’s found something that he wants to do (or thinks he does, but i’ll get onto that) that doesn’t align with football, mike’s hands off. not, in fact, because he thinks jamie is throwing his career away, but because he thinks he’s throwing HIS career away. he’s lived vicariously through jamie and his successes and now that jamie is going after something that isn’t “real football,” he can’t support it. because he doesn’t really support jamie. he just wants him to do the things he didn’t get to do.

even more so, his reaction to this i thought added to this:

hearing that howard royale was going to let him go anyway, he’s shocked. and i think he’s always thought in his head that jamie’s been a literal prodigy, someone unbeatable. yes, jamie is a wonderful player. but he’s not unstoppable. and so when karen logically points out how hawkstone are not going to put all their eggs in jamie’s basket, he starts to realize that jamie’s just a kid. an amazingly talented kid, but not a medium he can reverse his regrets through. and i think that this is what inspires him to go and support him at his competition: he’s his grandson first, and a football player second.

i just have to ignore ian at this point because . . . he sucks

dillon thinking the vibes are off at foxborough, providing an opportunity for him to stay at northport . . . 

(i am so sorry this is such an ugly screenshot)

i also couldn’t help but think of andi mack when dillon talked about coming out to phoenix:

soft girlfriends stretching together

i thought the moment between alba and zoe was really sweet actually - maybe in s6 they’ll get alba another girl to play with?

duncan turning over a new leaf and being not an asshole? we like to see it. also i really liked this shot for some reason

i’m really excited to see dillon at northport and see what he gets up to there. hopefully duncan hasn’t fooled us all and he’s really being genuine. 

okay, guess we have to talk about the world fifa cup (i’m sorry, but i can’t believe that freaking jethro and jamie are the best in the world. but i digress)

the interactions between jethro and jamie were kind of weak in my opinion - like, you’re also a failed footballer, jethro, don’t know what point you’re trying to make with that. it just felt very . . . weird. rehashing something that really didn’t need to be brought back.

the whole auditorium and everything felt more for cinematic effect, trying to have some big venue for the finale. unfortunately, from what i know in this tumblr community, this was the storyline we were least interested in, and yet they put (probably) the most money into it. kind of unfortunate.

i think i saw someone mention this but i thought i’d bring it up again: the game switching between fake players and then the actors actually playing.

so, you know, kind of odd.

there were a lot of moments in this entire event where they were building up certain things, but i think it doesn’t have a remotely comparable intensity as to when the gang were all playing together in, say, the gothia cup. i think the issue is that we have no attachment to the video game, the players (even though sometimes they’re the characters), or jamie at this point, honestly. so while i get what they were going for (i think), i think both the way they went about it and the characters they did it with led to it being kind of a flop, at least for me. 

let’s just say, i wasn’t jumping out of my seat waiting to see if a character that has been an asshole to a lot of his friends and ignored his family for multiple episodes can score a goal on a random video game.

i need to make a post about jamie (i’ll do that next) because this is way too long already to fit that in. essentially, though, i think that jamie never really liked playing this video game.

controversial, i know.

i’m sorry, but

why the fuck is karen letting ian take jamie literally anywhere

when i saw this i genuinely thought jamie was gonna jump out of the goddamn plane and break his entire body but obviously that didn’t happen

we don’t talk about the flashbacks to all of his wins because that just makes me sad and want to cry and they grew up so much and-

rewind a bit for dillon’s storyline

dillon’s dad goes from this:

to this:

which was a bit of a 180 but i also get that we needed resolution with their storyline. i guess my only criticism is that some of the things that his dad says are so intense and extreme, that a redemption arc afterwards is difficult. 

i was really proud of dillon for this:

i am genuinely so excited to see what happens in s6, his storyline is something that not only i am passionate about, but i think has been done with the most care and emotion. i think this whole thing has so much more room for development so fingers crossed we get to see that in s6 

i was so happy to see this as well:

he gave him TWO kisses!!!! it was just very wholesome, and while i haven’t forgiven him completely (this literally has nothing to do with me, lmao, but i assume dillon hasn’t either) i think (i hope) he’s really trying to change and be a supportive figure in dillon’s life for once.

and liam teasing him was cute

we are NOT crying

ahh this is such bad quality but that little tap on the stomach (see right)

and then this.

and then the turn of the camera from him to everyone else  . . i just can’t deal. that was really beautiful actually.

we have a whole load of feelings but maybe i’ll save that for another post.

but also:

*approves in lesbian*

and then the music and the shotsssssssssss

and then

s6 finale?

i’m just a mess and i was begging to my phone, “no, don’t leave me” so at least we know where i stand

i swear to fucking god if we don’t see zoe and kat in season 6 i’m throwing hands

they’re gonna have to do some work on jamie’s character because right now, it’s not looking good

elliot please come back

follow up on boggy’s anxiety/panic attacks

we should make a list of things we want in s6 and send it to bbc

i really liked this finale and i’m just so excited for more. just a big thank you to the cast and crew on this season because it has been my favorite of this show and i think they’ve done an incredible job overall. they’ve put in a lot of effort and i think we all appreciate it a lot.

i also don’t think i did this on my 5x11 review/analysis/shit writing, but i’d really like to thank @jonnie-kimmins for his acting in especially that episode. it was amazingly done and it didn’t feel over sensationalized or anything, at least from my experience with panic attacks. it felt very raw and real and i really commend everyone who was a part of that. 

i would tag the other actors but i think jonnie is the only one that’s cool enough to have made a tumblr account and then come and vibe with us hahaha

this was so long and i really didn’t analyze anything i just panicked (how on brand for me) so i hope you could bear to read it and yeah . . . let’s hope they can start/continue filming s6 soon!

[ninequestions9]

Michael, 26, Teacher / Actor

What is the biggest frustration you’re facing now?

I would say professionally, my frustration is I’m trying to change how theater is viewed at my school. It just seems like a club as opposed to something that’s worth doing that has meaning, that can transform lives.

    Personally my biggest frustration is the fact that my personal values don’t match up with my family’s values. My parents grew up in a very different time than I did and my brother unfortunately is beholden to them and agrees with them on a lot of things. I’m always seen as like the rebel or the one that has the progressive views and therefore my views are not welcome. So there’s a lot of tension in my household. We’re really not a family, you know, my dad and his brother hate each other and don’t speak. My mother and her siblings don’t speak and there was a whole lawsuit. So I don’t really have any sense of family in terms of like I have no extended family and even right now, my nuclear family….my brother doesn’t want to speak to me currently for a variety of different reasons. Mostly because he’s seeing someone. He met this girl and he hasn’t been behaving like himself and I told him he should start acting like himself and he told me never to speak to him again after that. Because we’re in this group chat with this fantasy football thing and he added her to the group chat and Ryan was always this snarky sarcastic kind of….he was my brother and he stopped acting like himself so I said “Ryan, why aren’t you acting like yourself?” Then he said “Please don’t speak to me ever again.” So that’s my personal frustration. And it sucks because that relationship with my brother meant the world to me. We were very close.

    It’s hard because as the oldest sibling you’re expected to…like Ryan’s always the easy going one and to my parents, you know, I’m the problem. So it’s “How dare I say that.” And while any time I’ve ever dated anyone they didn’t really like or I wasn’t acting like myself they, of course, yelled at me. So the consistency is off. My parents criticize me a lot and I’m under the microscope all the time and my brother can do no wrong. So it’s hard.

2. What trait do you wish you most had?

Better time management. I think it would help me better with my career. What makes me a good actor is that I can live in the moment and that’s what makes me a good teacher because I’m here, I’m present and I’m with you. But I’m always late for everything. I’m always going to be five minutes late. I’m one of those people. I actively try not to be five minutes late and I am somehow two minutes late. I just over schedule. I take on too much. I’m always giving a piece of myself. Whether it’s like I have a meeting period six, but it’s lunch and a student comes in and is like “I need you,” I’m like “Alright I’m here! I’m with you!” And my supervisor tells me this all the time: you need to take more time for yourself. Weekends, weekdays, lunch, I’m always there for my kids, for my students, for my friends so I have a very poor sense of time management.

3. What are 3 characteristics you look for in a friend?

Loyalty, someone who gets my sense of humor, and kindness and compassion.

4. What makes you feel brave?

For a while it was my sheer will. Like “I just have to get through this.” Which is why my favorite super heroes are Batman and Dare Devil because….especially Dare Devil. I super identify with Dare Devil because his whole thing is he gets knocked down, he gets back up, like, why does he keep getting back up?

    But I think it’s my friends and the people I care about that make me feel brave. That’s what motivates me to get back up, to get hit again.

5. What makes you feel vulnerable?

That’s a hard question for me as an actor because my job is to be vulnerable in every role I do. So everyone gets to see my deepest pain, my deepest fears, my deepest love, but through someone else. So I would say art makes me feel vulnerable; singing, expression makes me feel vulnerable, but you’ll never know that it’s me. In terms of being truly vulnerable, I would say safety. Someone I can trust makes me personally feel vulnerable. They can see my deepest pain is what it is. I tell my kids this all the time: your job as an actor is to be honest, open, vulnerable with a character, but no one will ever know what your pain is. They’ll see the pain, but they won’t know it’s yours. They’ll see it as the character’s. So that’s how I’ve been my entire life just sharing my pain through the characters I play. For someone to recognize what that pain is in my life, it’s trust, it’s safety.

6. What was your proudest moment?

When my students grow or when I see them become people and embrace their talents. For example, I have this one student that hated reading, he’s a senior so he’s done with high school, the whole thing. I showed them The Truman Show before we started reading “The Stranger.” He watched it and he was like shooketh by the movie! He’s like “Hey Mr. B I really want to read this book cuz I love the movie.” And he read the book and he participated! This was a kid that played games most of the time in class. So that was a proud moment.

    I have this one student, she’s Thelma [in the school production of Chicago] and she has so much anxiety. When she believes in herself, that’s when I feel pride because….when you see someone who’s so insecure about themselves and struggling, because you know high school kids, especially today, have a lot to deal with, so seeing her find herself, even in the briefest moments makes me proud because I’m helping. So that makes me proud. Being there for other people and seeing my influence. Well, it’s not me, it’s them. It’s more knowing that I was there to help them along the path and help them be the person they were always meant to be.

7. Who is your role model / hero and why?

My dad. Its funny because all the super heroes I idolize it’s because of the will, if you know what I mean. That’s my dad. He spends most of the time getting beaten down by life and he always got back up. He provided for his family and always made sure that we were taken care of. I am who I am because of him, so yeah, he’s my hero. That’s what he gave me. I hope to be half the man that he is. He provides for his family, he takes care of his wife. He’s supremely loyal and he’s a good looking charming guy. He never strayed. He always had a good internal moral compass and that’s something I try to emulate. He tries to instill that in his sons. Like when you think of like “That’s a good man,” that’s my dad. He’s a good man. He’s not a great man, but he’s a good man. And he loves his kids and he loves his wife. That’s a hero to me.

8. What is one life lesson you’d like to pass down to future generations?

Always challenge yourself to be better. If you look at any religion, any book, anything, at the central point of it is to challenge you to be better. So my hope is that future generations challenge themselves to always be better because we will always fail, we will always be human, we will always make mistakes and the goal is to learn from those mistakes. Just challenge yourself. “You know, I messed up, I’ll be better tomorrow.” That’s all you can hope for is that you just be better. With compassion, with empathy, with being kinder. I think it’s very easy to fall into a hole where you’re like, “Well it’s all about me.” No, just be a better version of yourself to others, to yourself. I think if we all try to do that individually, that will be better for the collective common good.

9. What is your opinion of Jesus?

I went to a Catholic school for a very long time. My opinion is the current Catholicism, Christianity, has him all wrong. The man was brown, he was progressive, and he was a radical and they killed him for it. We are currently living in a country where Christianity is essentially the main religion to the point where it is infused into our laws, our society even though we say church and state separate, you know, it’s not. To me, he is a figure who is being used by many to support their own agendas and hate and it makes me sad because I don’t think that’s what he would have wanted. If you read the Bible, which I have many times for a lot of different assignments, the established Christianity is not what I feel like Jesus would have wanted. Which is why I have turned away from it. I joke that I know too much. In that, yeah, I’ve done my Bible study, I’ve read it several times and it upsets me to see where we’ve gone. Unfortunately, we’re in a time in politics where conservatives are using religion to justify a lot of hate, a lot of bigotry, a lot of things that aren’t really important. To me, Jesus was a man, depending on what you believe, might also have been God who came down and said “Let’s forgive and let’s care about each other more.” Let’s love each other. Even our enemies. I think that’s lost currently in modern day society in so many ways. I think if we could actually take the time to go back to that, it might fix a lot of the problems.

[rkeefer]

http://bit.ly/2F1Xbvm

The NC Courage have become a big part of our family’s lives this past year. We’ll be fans for life. Let me tell you a bunch of the reasons why.

Who are the North Carolina Courage?

The NC Courage are a two-year-old women’s professional soccer team. They play their home games in Cary, North Carolina — a town just South of us here in Raleigh. Technically, the Courage are more like five years old, starting as the Western New York Flash, where they were an original founding member of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). They relocated to North Carolina in 2017 — and that’s where our introduction to the team first began.

Soccer Heightening in our Family

Over the past four years, soccer has quickly become a big part of our lives. Mainly, it’s because both of our boys are playing in the North Carolina Football Club Youth (NCFCY) organization. Our oldest, Tyler is a talented all-around player in his second full year at the challenge level. Our youngest, Nolan is a progressing and talented recreational player. In 2017, the youth organization transitioned from CASL to NCFCY, and with it, a stronger association with the professional NCFC and NC Courage squads.

Additionally, I’ve been coaching since Tyler was in his second season as a rec player. I moved up with him to challenge. With that, I was looking for more places to pick up and understand the game. The professional duo of teams in the North Carolina Football Club and the NC Courage was an obvious choice.

The whole family had already begun to be drawn to the women’s game in a major way, watching all of the US World Cup games over 2015 where the United States eventually won it all.

We had also been fans of the team NCFC had been before — the Railhawks. Tyler had even had a birthday party at the pitch, and we had been to a handful of games.

Inaugural Courage Season

In the Courage’s first year playing in North Carolina, we attended a pair of games and were hooked instantly. That first year we watched them play against Orlando, and then their 1-0 victory against the Red Stars that propelled them to the NWSL Championship Final where they, unfortunately, fell to the Portland Thorns 1-0.

That inaugural season, the NC Courage finished the regular season in first place with a 16-7-1 record, winning the NWSL shield. Through 2017’s season, no NWSL team had ever won both the regular season (NWSL shield) and the championship — a bit of an NWSL curse.

Season Tickets

In the past couple years, my wife, Amanda and I had been toying with the idea of getting season tickets to a local sports team — a way to elevate our fandom a bit, and just support a local team wholeheartedly. Initially, we looked at the Carolina Hurricanes, but between prices, the number of games, and the on-ice product, we declined to pull the trigger.

But at just over a year ago, I decided to get the whole family a big Christmas present — season tickets for the 2018 NC Courage season. Christmas morning, Amanda was psyched to be season ticket holders. The boys took a little bit more convincing. At their ages of 4 and 8 at the time, both were wanting the men’s season tickets — you know because girls have cooties and all.

NC Courage 2018 Season

The 2018 season was an absolute blast, and an amazing time to come into the fray full-time as season ticket holders. We only missed two games all season — one because of weather (the season opener), and one because Tyler had an out-of-town soccer tournament of his own. Other than that, we were present at every other home game, and we streamed every single away game.

The on-field product was absolutely amazing all season, and late in the season, while attending a men’s NCFC match, Tyler admitted that the women were superior. He confessed the Courage were more fun to watch. We went to multiple NCFC games. I’m not taking anything away from NCFC, but it was satisfying to hear we converted Tyler.

Courage Player Interaction

As awesome as the on-field product was, the real icing on the cake, and the thing that really sold our boys, and my wife and I to a lesser extent were all the interactions we had with the players, coaches and staff throughout the 2018 season.

At our first home game, rather than sit around in traffic at the conclusion of the match, the four of us went down to the railing separating the stands from the pitch. The boys got to meet a bunch of the players, get autographs, take photos, and just talk.

I cannot tell you what a great first impression the girls made on our family. They were all genuine and legitimately thankful for our attendance and our support. That first 2018 home game solidified a tradition for us, staying after each and every game to congratulate the team, talk to them, and to get them to autograph tickets and miscellaneous merchandise. We’ve still got to frame some of that autographed merch from the season.

Sabrina D’Angelo

Throughout the course of the season, several of the players ended up knowing our boys by face and a few knew them by name. Nolan latched onto goalkeeper, Sabrina D’Angelo early on. The interactions post-game between Nolan and D’Angelo were a highlight for both Nolan and for Amanda and I. All season, he talked a big game when she was at a distance, but retreated into a rare shy shell often when actually talking to her after the matches.

Their friendship fully cemented in the final home game when Nolan and Sabrina swapped jerseys — a gesture that we’re grateful for. We had tried for a while to get a Nike D’Angelo jersey for Nolan through the NC Courage store and Nike, but it just wasn’t possible/for sale. I offhandedly mentioned it to Sabrina after a match, and she said Nolan could have one of her 2017 jerseys. That’s when Amanda offered to do a jersey swap. So cool — and just one of the many great interactions between D’Angelo and our family, along with so many other NC Courage players.

Lots of Other Player Interactions

While D’Angelo definitely left a lasting impression on Nolan, and the rest of the family, there were a lot of other players. Again, they all were personable, and interactive post game. Former Tar Heel, Jess McDonald was always great to talk with this season — from the post-game signings and chats at the home pitch to the outside of Portland’s Providence Park, she’s been so much fun to get to know just a little bit.

McCall Zerboni has always been super-personable post-game. She took interest in Nolan especially, and it was as high energy after the game as she is in the middle of it. Other players that come to mind in post-game interactions are Jalene Hinkle, Sam Mewis, Elizabeth Eddy, Abby Erceg, Lynn Williams, among others.

2018 NWSL Championship

In May, the NWSL announced that the 2018 Championship for NWSL would happen in Portland, Oregon — a place neither Amanda and I had ever been. With the record-breaking season the Courage were having, we decided to get tickets and make a long weekend out of it. While there were still months to go before fully knowing if the Courage would make it all the way to the championship game, we were all in. I just hoped us purchasing tickets wouldn’t jinx the girls in any way.

As it turned out, it didn’t. Even a hurricane couldn’t stop the 2018 Courage. Mother nature did rob us of being able to see the Courage at home in the semi-finals. Ultimately, we got to see them play and win in the biggest game. They played what ended up being a home field advantage match for their opponents — the Portland Thorns.

Hanging in Portland

Amanda and I flew out to Portland for an extended weekend in Oregon, with the NWSL championship being the centerpiece. We arrived a few days early and got to walk over to a Courage practice and cheer them on with a few other fans. It turned out to be mainly family members of the Courage players. We ended up meeting and talking with a bunch of the parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles.

We got to know several of the families. Everyone was super welcoming and great to interact with, and we ended up hanging out with them on several occasions. The hope is we’ll see some of them again here at a future match.

Championship Gameday

Originally, our tickets we purchased were the best available, but after meeting up with the Courage family members, we ended up switching our tickets to be near the families and with the other fans who had traveled to the game. Our seats were in the second row for the match where we stood the whole entire match, cheering the whole time as a minority cheering for the NC Courage. The stands were completely packed. The volume level was booming loud. As the Courage scored their first goal, then a second, and a third, things got a bit quieter. Thorns fans around us heckled a lot. But it got to be less and less as it was obvious the visiting (but No. 1 seed) was going to be victorious.

Our purchase of tickets to the NWSL championship before the teams were determined thankfully didn’t jinx the Courage. Our first road game would end up being the Championship, where the girls from NC would end up dominating Portland in a 3-0 win.

Post-Game

The post-game celebration of the Courage winning it all was great fun. The quickly assembled stage at midfield elevated the players as they got their individual medals and NWSL trophy. The Courage all came to our section with trophy raised in triumph, clapping as confetti rained down. As we made the way around the large Providence Park, to go nearer the player benches, we congratulated fellow fans and family.

Exiting the facility, we ended up waiting with Courage family members. We saw Courage/NCFC owner Steve Malik, trophy around his neck. Amanda got to wear it and get photographed with the medal. Malik thanked everyone for coming out.

Amanda and I talked to McDonald a bit, as well as Hinkle as they exited the facility, before ultimately riding back to the Courage’s hotel with Courage family to take part it the post-championship celebration.

On the upper floors of their hotel, in a relatively small ballroom, everyone was fired up — players, coaches, staff significant others, family, fans, and putting the exclamation point on the season, that had only a single loss, an NWSL Shield, and an NWSL Championship. The curse was finally broken by our own NC Courage.

It was so surreal witnessing very up close and personal the celebration, the speeches and elation. View the speeches and some of the celebration here.

2019 and Beyond

It was a no-brainer that we’d renew our season tickets. The 2019 season can’t come quick enough for the Keefer family. We’re ready to see the NC Courage back on the pitch with the majority of the team back, cheering for them, and talking to them afterward. Zerboni should be back from injury. Williams and McDonald will still be scoring machines, and the hope is they defend and retain the NWSL shield, and return to the championship match in the 2019 season.

We only missed watching a single game all season, because of one of Tyler’s soccer tournaments. We attended all but two home games. Our goal in 2019 is to make it to all the home games and to hit a least one road game (Orlando at least).

Thanks NC Courage!

We’ve had such a blast being fans of the NC Courage for the past year and look forward to the years to come. We’ve had a wonderful time learning about the personalities, fire, and skill of every player, coach and staff members associated with the team. Thanks for letting us be a part of it all, and here’s to many more seasons.

The post Our Journey with the NC Courage appeared first on Keefer Madness.

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Undelivered // Archie

Summary: Reader is a popular YouTuber from the small and dark town known as Riverdale. Spending the summer in LA and losing contact with her Riverdale friends she keeps busy to keep her mind off it. Returning to Riverdale she sees things have changed while she was gone.

Characters: Reader x Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge (mentioned), Jughead Jones, Reader x Ethan Dolan, Grayson Dolan (mentioned) and Pops.

Words:1478

Disclaimer: I do not own Riverdale or the characters. I do not own Youtube either.

Warnings: Possible swearing, angst, Ms. Grundy x Archie

Author: Caitsy

Tagging: At the bottom

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Riverdale was an odd little town with the usual dram, the cliche kind that was notoriously shown in entertainment. You had the controlling Mrs. Cooper whom had two daughters that were completely under her thumb. The oldest was Polly whom lived in a group home following a nervous break down after a fight between Jason Blossom and her. Betty was the youngest Cooper with a large crush on Archie Andrews and close to following in her sister’s footsteps in a group home.

You had spent the summer in sunny Los Angeles. You had been invited by YouTube for meetings and collabs. You had surpassed two million subscribers before you got the email inviting you to stay in an apartment provided by the company and meet each other. In the busy summer you had lost touch with your best friends back at Riverdale and it wasn’t all your fault either, they didn’t reach out or answer the few messages before you stopped.

The day before your first day of sophomore year you had filmed a quick video explaining that you were back in your hometown before diving into a Q &A. Following the death of your parents your brother Tommy had moved from his childhood bedroom into the master bedroom and fixed up his room into a studio for you to film and edit videos. It was worth it with the amount of people supporting you and the increase of subscribers coming from other YouTubers that you collabed with. Those subscribers were Jc Caylen and Kian, the Dolan Twins, Team 10 one time, and Lilly Singh known more by her username IISuperwomanII.

“Y/N?!” Tommy exclaimed pulling you in for a tight hug finally happy to have his only remaining family back. Your beat up car was sitting in the driveway looking like it could break down at any moment but you were nearly the amount you needed to buy a new car.

“Tommy!” You sighed feeling relief of being back with him in your hometown even if you missed LA and the people.

“Catch up over a burger?”

“You read my mind.”

Pops hadn’t changed since you were last in the homey neon restaurant. It wasn’t too busy to your absolute surprise given that the food here was something magical and old fashioned. Yet at the same time it was pretty late when you walked in. You were reminiscing as you moved your eyes over the inside before your heart stopped. Sitting in the usual booth you and your friends has used was Archie and Betty,

Archie was focusing his attention on a gorgeous brunette that was obviously from a family with money like the Blossoms. It made you feel weird because he had chased you for a number of years ever since you were in the third grade. Betty had always been jealous about that given she claimed she was in love with the red head. Little Archie had grown in the absence this summer and you were shamelessly checking him out. You noticed someone was missing from the small group.

“Where’s Jughead?” You asked Tommy’s friends since the middle of the summer.

“Last I heard, the two haven’t been friends since the middle of summer.”

When you looked to the right you saw the familiar crown beanie that was the trademark object that screamed Jughead. Jughead was sitting with his back to the door but you could just see what he was looking at. He seemed entranced by his open computer and a mug was pushed to the edge of the table begging to be filled.

“Y/N Y/L.N!” The voice of Pop exclaimed coming up to your brother and you, “Look at that tan!”

You felt the distinct heated looks from your old friends as if they blamed you for not keeping in contact and abandoning them. You ignored them just as they had this summer mainly because you didn’t want to deal with them to be frank.

“Hey Pop!” You grinned, “Man I missed this place! No food in LA could compete against your food.”

“Thank you. How was LA?”

“Amazing! Sunny and beautiful with clear skies and blue water.” You sighed remembering the entire summer.

Pop had become a father figure when your parents died the car accident. He had worked at the restaurant while babysitting you with efficiency. You lived with Pop and his family until Tommy was old enough to become your legal guardian and move back into your family house.

“What did you do?”

“Remember when I showed you my YouTube?” You asked earning a nod, “I went for meets and collabs.” 
“Is my Y/N familiar?”

“Hell yeah she is!” Tommy exclaimed messing your hair up.

After a couple minutes you were comfortable in a booth across from your brother. You were close to where Jug sat because he was the least likely candidate to ambush you. It wasn’t entirely his style and you weren’t sure if he even knew you were here.

“They want me to return. You said to Tommy with reluctance.

“Already?” Tommy asked shocked.

“Yeah.” You sighed, “I signed a contract to allow me to finish high school anywhere I want. I’ll move to LA when I’m graduated and my summers will be spent in LA also.”

“Smart.” Tommy nodded, “I wouldn’t allow you if you had to move while in school.”

Both you and Tommy were witting in a comfortable silence that was normal between the two of you. When your parents were still alive you fought like cats and dogs but now you considered each other a close friend and confidant. You were thinking of new video ideas for next weeks video seeing as you had already done a Q & A. Things had changed since you last sat in Pops, the day before you left. During your time as a popular YouTuber, you had dated other YouTubers. You were still privately dating Ethan Dolan when you had met him and Grayson a few weeks into settling in the apartment building they were in.

“What’s new in this small town?” You questioned.

“Uh…Jason Blossom drowned on July 4th.” Tommy frowned. They had been rivals when Tommy was still in high school because Jason landed varsity football his first year of high school.

“Oh my god!” You gasped shocked, “How did a strong swim captain die swimming?”

“He wasn’t swimming. They haven’t found his body either but it’s well known that Cheryl was on the boat with him when it tipped over.”

*Archie’s POV*

Archie was listening as Betty talked after Veronica left to take the food back to her mother. Betty seemed upset when Veronica had interrupted them and left but Betty seemed to be upset the new girl had joined them. He pushed away the fact she was upset, instead focusing on his relationship with Ms. Grundy. Besides he was upset and confused that Jughead hadn’t contacted him since he had said he couldn’t go on the trip but he froze when he heard Pop.

“Y/N Y/L/N! Look at that tan!”

Both Archie and Betty watched as Tommy and Y/n stood talking to the older man with large grins and happiness. They were shocked at the image of their friend being back from LA given she was supposed to have moved there permanently. Why was she back?

That’s Y/N!” Betty exclaimed, “I thought she moved to LA?!”

“I did too.” Archie muttered as he watched the girl smile at Pop.

“Did you talk to her this summer at all?”

“No.” Archie replied staring at his childhood crush, “I was too busy working this summer.”

The words were bitter on his tongue from the weight of guilt that was glued to them. A couple days after he began seeing Ms. Grundy she had asked him to stop talking with Y/M. Everyone in Riverdale knew that Archie was completely in love with Y/N and Ms. Grundy wasn’t stupid to not see that it was true.

“Mom took my phone away so I had no way of contacting her.”

Little did Archie know that when you had left you had texted him with a question he would have been so excited to read. In the month before summer started you had started to return his feelings with surprise.

Hey Archie, I chickened out but when I get back do you want to go on a date? Let me know July 4th at the latest. I hope to see you soon.

Ms. Grundy had seen it when Archie was in the bathroom and was entirely disgusted that the young girl was trying to get her Archie. With belief that Archie would drop her for his dream girl she had deleted the message along with her contact after blocking the number. The message hadn’t been delivered to Archie.

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Are people constantly dumping their negative energy on you? Do you find yourself bombarded with painful thoughts from your past? What if with seven simple steps you could minimize their mess and maximize your happiness? Interested? Read on…

  In Family Is Not Everything: How To Minimize Their Mess, Maximize Your Happiness and Enjoy Emotional Baggage Breakthroughs, author Anita Washington details personal stories of surviving a homicidal alcoholic father, a neglectful mother and an emotionally and physically abusive brother to show you how childhood trauma turns into adult dysfunctional behavior. She includes lessons to learn from her abuse and her life-altering mistakes, along with teaching you how to use the affirmations, techniques and activities of her 7-Step Method to resolve the effects of emotional baggage and create a life of purpose and meaning. The 7-Step Method is a process of seven sequential steps she had seen produce the greatest results. It has not only worked for her and her previous clients, it can also work for you!

BOOK REVIEWS

  ASwirlGirl 5.0 out of 5 stars  This Book is Riveting! I finished this book a few days ago and I’m still mulling over what I’ve read. So much of Family Is Not Everything is heartbreaking and painful to read, and my heart ached for Anita. I rejoice in the fact that despite EVERYTHING that happened in her childhood and young adult-hood, Anita TRIUMPHED. She shares realistic, actionable steps that can be taken by others who feel trapped by their past or the circumstances of life. I applaud Anita’s courage and transparency in writing this book. I’ve been impacted profoundly as a result of reading this, and I know I’ll be thinking about what I’ve read for years to come.

Falexia 5.0 out of 5 stars  A must read! Amazing book, hard to put down. It’s heartbreaking to read about the horrible things Anita endured, but despite what she went through she didn’t let it destroy her. This book is for everyone who grew up in a dysfunctional family, it gives you hope and inspired you to use what you’ve gone through to help others. We are taught that family is everything, yet the Word even says that your enemies will be members of your own household, Matt 10:36, therefore family is not everything and it’s okay to cut them off if it means saving your life. The book helps you under generational curses and educated you on how to be an overcome and not stay a victim. This book is going to help a lot of people who want to be free from the prison of their past, it gives hope for those who grew up in a negative or toxic environment. Freedom can be yours if you put into actions the steps Anita lays out in this book.

  Sharon Lawrence, LCSW-C 5.0 out of 5 stars Brave, Resilient, and Courageous!! This book is amazing!!! It speaks for many who are afraid to share their stories of pain and trauma. Anita takes us on a journey while providing us with tools to improve our own lives with no guilt. It will teach you how to establish self-respect, set boundaries and live a free life. Thank you Anita!!!

  Rhonda Dickerson 5.0 out of 5 stars  Family is Not Everything!!! This book is sooo good. It is very hard to put down. After reading this book it gave me a extra push to finish my book and not worry about others opinion. I am so happy for you Anita. Thank you for allowing God to use you to help and health others. Love you!!

  Charlie Latham 5.0 out of 5 stars  A helpful book that gives you actionable steps to work on Everyone has traumatic events happen in their childhood and this is what shapes and molds our psychological behavior and outlook. Ultimately we all have traits we don’t like because of this, and they vary in so many ways depending on what exactly we’ve been through. For me I mainly struggle with a mixture of anxiety and emotional detachment which grew from going to boarding school at a young age. Reading this helped me analyse why I had these personality traits, dissect that a bit and deal with it. It showed me how these had formed and gave me steps that I can actively follow to change this way of thinking and behaving.

  Explore Books Anita Washington

AnitaTheAuthor.com/FINEAmazon (Amazon)

AnitaTheAuthor.com/FINEbn (Barnes and Noble)

        Excerpt: Family Is Not Everything: How To Minimize Their Mess, Maximize Your Happiness and Enjoy Emotional Baggage Breakthroughs

  BACK IN THE DAY

Once upon a time, we managed emotional problems with only prayer and encouragement. Seeking professional help was frowned upon. We were taught, What happens in this house, stays in this house. Seeking counseling services for divorce or molestation or addiction or domestic violence was taboo. Society expected the wife being battered by her husband to stay married, the niece being molested by an uncle to keep quiet, the daughter with the alcoholic father to make the best of it. Divorce wasn’t even regarded as a serious consideration. Instead, any spouse considering divorce was encouraged to make a new commitment to their vows, to pray, and to have faith. We were expected to achieve emotional wellness through a process of suppression and turning a blind eye. Adults had to live their lives according to who they were expected to be and hide who they really were. Children were expected to be seen and not heard.

Remember those days?

The unspoken belief was that when the person died, the problem died with them. When the alcoholic father died, the problems and effects of alcoholism died with him. When the physically abusive mother died, the problems and effects of battery died with her. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth and, because of this, generational curses have been present in our society for centuries. A generational curse is created when the effects of an emotional offense are passed down from one generation to another. It manifests through different dysfunctional behaviors in each family member but can be traced back to one common cause. So how is a generational curse passed down? In emotional baggage.

Children who grow up in dysfunctional environments become adults who exhibit dysfunctional behavior. A child learns from their experiences and from what they’re exposed to and then utilizes that later—albeit unknowingly—as a mechanism when they become an adult. In large part, the person you are today is a collection of your past experiences. Your behavior is shaped by what you think, and what you think is determined by what you’ve seen and heard. Basically, traumatic events experienced during childhood and left unresolved produce dysfunctional behavior in the adult. We carry it around unseen in the form of emotional baggage. Don’t believe me? Keep reading. Let me put it in live and living color for you.

  THE STORY – THREE GENERATIONS

Imagine a family of three generations: a grandmother, mother, and daughter. Although the grandmother dies a couple years after the granddaughter is born, somehow, at the tender age of sixteen, they will each have become teenage mothers.

The year is 2000. In a small town in the southeastern United States, the high school football team is playing in the state championship game. The entire town is excited. Flat-panel TVs are mounted over the counters of local hotels and fast-food restaurants. Policemen direct the heavy traffic with glow-in-the-dark mascot paw prints painted on the palms of their gloves. Young and old, those with children and those without gather in the local stadium to watch the beloved home team take on their fifty-year rival. The bleachers rock from the beat of the fight songs played by the high school band as the crowd claps and dances along with the cheerleaders. The art club paints paw prints and jersey numbers on the faces of fans of every age. The booster club sells hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, and popcorn decorated in the team’s colors. The junior class volunteers sell commemorative programs and T-shirts to raise money for their impending senior trip. It’s the second quarter and the score is 14–7, with the home team in the lead.

While love, happiness, and excitement roar over the bleachers, under the bleachers lives lust and desire. Justin, affectionately called “the Magic Two” by other students, is the son of an alcoholic and the lead-scoring shooting guard for the high school basketball team. He stands six-four, is clean-cut and caramel colored, with hazel eyes. He has set his eyes on Monisha, a 4.0, coke-bottle-curved yet unpopular geek sophomore who has just celebrated her sixteenth birthday—and who is very conflicted. In her head she keeps hearing the one thing her mother has repeated her entire life: “Leave boys alone. They’ll ruin your life.” But inside she feels the butterflies flutter as Justin says, “You’re really beautiful,” and wraps his letterman’s jacket around her shoulders.

When Monisha was born in 1984, her mother, Monique, was sixteen, and her father, Clayton, was seventeen. They were the head cheerleader and captain of the football team, and everyone adored them. Wherever you saw her, you saw him and his cherry-red Ford Escort. Monique had thick, jet-black, shoulder-length hair and a tiny waist. Clayton had a bright, big, money-grip smile that sparkled with all the promises of possibility for future success. The night of the junior prom, Monique wore a floor-length Carolina Herrera sheath-silhouette evening gown with a twist one-shoulder strap. Clayton was in a black-and-white tuxedo. He picked Monique up at her home at seven o’clock Friday night and dropped her off at noon on Saturday; with that, Monisha was conceived. The generational curse had claimed another member of the family. The emotional baggage of hurt and shame had shut down healthy communication about love, sex, or relationships in Monique’s household. Monique too had been the product of a teen pregnancy, a disappointment to not only family but also the community, which was harbored by Millie, Monique’s mother, in silence.

Millie threw herself into making life look perfect and good, even though she was hurting on the inside. That silence left Monique to learn responsible behavior by trial and error. Millie was too hurt to bring it up for discussion and too ashamed to acknowledge the right way because it would shed light on the fact that she’d done it the wrong way. Millie and Sam, Monique’s father, were one of the more well-respected and affluent couples in town, the kind that keeps family faux pas quiet.

In 1968, Millie and Sam were the pride of the local Section 8 project community. A straight-A student, Millie excelled in math and science. Monique’s father, Sam, was the lead singer in a quartet, crooning Motown jams at parties every Saturday night and belting out soul-stirring gospel hymns in the churches every Sunday morning.

Millie and Sam managed to make marriage look good. Millie attended teachers’ college and secured a position teaching math at the elementary school. Sam traveled the world extensively, first as a lead singer, then as a solo artist. It was his way of handling his feelings of hurt and shame from teenage pregnancy, creating a family he was not able to provide for. If he didn’t see it, he didn’t have to face it.

The music hits and the steady paychecks were ever present in Monique’s home, but attention and love were not. Her parents provided food, clothing, and shelter but otherwise ignored Monique. She was the evidence of their failure to live a moral life. If they did not look at her, they didn’t have to wear the badge of embarrassment. Rumors of Sam’s cheating on the road would sometimes filter back to town, but proof didn’t materialize until the other wife and children attended his funeral. Neither Millie nor Sam was emotionally present or available to cultivate genuine love in their child. Unconsciously, her parents passed on the emotional baggage of hurt and shame and, though she was always the best-dressed girl in school, the baton of the family curse seamlessly moved from one generation to another and now another.

Monisha, the third generation, has her mother’s curves and her grandfather’s soulful songbird voice. Her grandmother, Millie, raised her until her untimely death when Monisha was three years old. At that time, Monisha went to live with her mother, Monique, who rarely smiled because, like Monique was to Millie, Monisha was the evidence of the life-altering mistake Monique had made. It had crushed her dreams of attending college and going to law school. She was stuck in a small town working swing shifts at a dead-end hourly job in the local food factory. Her conversations were full of pessimistic snappy comebacks uttered between the cigarettes she chain-smoked. Unfortunately, because of the emotional baggage she carried, she couldn’t free herself of the hurt and disappointment so she could mature and be a better mother to Monisha than Millie had been to her. When Monisha entered high school and the house phone started ringing with boys calling, Monique simply hung up the phone and told Monisha, “Leave boys alone, they’ll ruin your life.” Throughout Monisha’s childhood she heard her mother’s grumblings about how her father was no good. Monique complained constantly about how Clayton didn’t buy food or how he was not trustworthy enough to babysit.

The educational trend of social promotion of star athletes made it very difficult for Clayton to survive at the Ivy League college that heavily recruited him. Though he had a 3.7 GPA, it was obvious Clayton could read and write at only a fourth-grade level, so he dropped out. Out of compassion, the community business owners, who were once high school teammates of Clayton’s, employed him for odd jobs until his addiction to alcohol would take over his performance and he would return to rehab to dry out once again. He was of no assistance to Monique.

Teen pregnancy is the epidemic, lack of communication and courage to heal are its enablers, but hurt and shame are the generational curse. And so, two weeks after her sixteenth birthday and just twenty minutes after belting out a soulful rendition of the National Anthem, Monisha is under the bleachers at the state championship football game. She thinks she knows what love is. She believes Justin is the one to give her that forever-after kind of love. Justin has taken her from nerd-weird to crazy-cool with one wink of his eye and made her the most popular girl in school—that’s love, or so Monisha feels.

Our biggest problem as a society is that the emotional baggage of hurt, pain, guilt, and shame gets passed down but not resolved. It can live in a family for centuries yet never be discussed openly. Why? Some believe discussing it openly glorifies it. Others believe if it is not discussed, it will go away. These misconceptions breed life into the problem and death to the soul. It forces victims to continue to suffer in silence. It creates a breeding ground for dysfunctional behavior that can hurt future generations.

You’ve seen it a hundred times. The daughter of a teen mom grows up to have a baby at the exact same age her mom birthed her. The son of a heroin addict grows up to be addicted to heroin. The son of a physically abusive father grows up to physically assault his wife. The daughter of a battered and beaten mom grows up to only feel she is loved—when? When she’s being hit. The string of connected dots from one generation to another is a generational curse. But hold on—please do not think the “dots” are always the same kind of dysfunctional behavior.

The pattern of maladaptive behavior can manifest differently in each person. For instance, a father beaten and sodomized in the sixties commits suicide. His son, who was a teen at the time of the incident, becomes a substance abuser. And his son, the third generation, for lack of having a healthy father, becomes a womanizer. Suicide, substance abuse, and womanizing are all dysfunctional behaviors that can be traced back to the experience the family suffered in the sixties. All the behaviors—suicide, substance abuse, and womanizing—are dysfunctional behaviors but not the same behavior. Get it? Maybe this will help …

Imagine three generations of men—a grandfather and his brother, son, and grandson—exhibiting different coping mechanisms but carrying emotional baggage because of the same horrific historic incident.

The year was 1972. MLK Jr. and JFK had been assassinated. On every wall in America hung honors in their memory as the fight for civil rights raged on. Jim and his brother Peter were leaving a protest in Atlanta, Georgia, driving back to Charleston, South Carolina, when they stopped at a country corner store for gas. The sign in the window read “Always Open, All Welcome,” but the rifle pushing into Jim’s back as he paid for the gas Peter had just pumped said “White’s only.” Peter was forced behind the store at gunpoint with his hands up in the “don’t shoot” position. After the pillowcase went over Jim’s head, he began reciting the “Our Father” prayer. He thought about his darling wife, his aging mother, and the murders of Mr. Evers and Dr. King. Jim could hear Peter screaming as he was dragged behind the store. Both men were sodomized, severely beaten, and left for dead. Both men were found by a white college professor returning from a summit in Charleston, South Carolina, to his home in Atlanta when he stopped for gas around midnight and oddly found the store closed.

Jim and Peter were taken to a hospital. When they returned home, they were physically healed but emotionally destroyed. Jim sat for days without uttering a word. His wife continued to love and care for him until his death in 1983, just shy of his son Jeremiah’s sixteenth birthday.

Jeremiah doesn’t remember his father’s happy-go-lucky personality. He remembers only a lump of human existence that sat on the porch from sunup to sundown, and then at the dinner table until bedtime. Because she worked as a housekeeper at the local college, Jeremiah’s mother was gone all day, but Jeremiah’s Uncle Peter would stop by the house to see his brother, Jim. Somehow, Peter seemed to have bounced back to a normal life—always full of jokes for Jim and candy for Jeremiah. On one particular day, Peter didn’t stay on the porch with Jim. He softly walked the house and found it empty, with the exception of Jeremiah, napping in his bedroom. Sitting on the porch, Jim cried as he listened to his son scream for Uncle Peter to stop hurting him, but Jim never moved. Two years later, Jim drove to a nearby pond, locked all the doors on his 1957 Chevy pickup truck, set it ablaze, and burned to death.

Jeremiah’s high school friends affectionately called him Jerry. They loved his happy-go-lucky demeanor and warm smile. When they cut class to hang out at the baseball field, he always supplied the booze. Jerry started drinking heavily at fifteen—the same year he fell in love with Susan, the beautiful sixteen-year-old platinum blond with the baby-blue eyes. Together, they smoked, drank, and made love. The next year, they had Justin, a beautiful baby boy with hazel eyes. Jerry and Susan remained a couple. Though Susan worked full-time as a receptionist, Jerry bounced around doing handiwork for the people in town.

In 1984, Justin, a high school sophomore, is the star of the varsity high school basketball team, and Susan could often be seen in the stands sporting a sweatshirt screen printed with Justin’s jersey number. His dad, though, never made it to one game. Many nights after he and his mom returned from one of his basketball games, Justin stepped over his father, who was passed out in the doorway. Susan would pick Jerry up and drag him to their bedroom as the phone bounced off the hook, constantly ringing, from a steady stream of girls vying for Justin’s attention.

The family curse affected each of the men differently, though the root cause was the same. Peter became a molester; Jim committed suicide; his son, Jerry, became an alcoholic; and his grandson, Justin, was a womanizer. Unresolved guilt, hurt, pain, and shame was the emotional baggage handed down in the family’s generational curse. Without a strong positive father figure, the second and third generations were left to deal with the hurt and shame experienced by the first generation and to figure out how to become men on their own.

Everyone has been affected by dysfunctional behavior, if not through their family, then through their job, church, or community. Perhaps you can remember lying awake at night listening to your neighbor abuse his love interest. Maybe you watched over and over as the youth pastor or priest exhibited a stronger interest in one child as they disappeared into rooms alone. Or maybe you’ve suffered at the hands (or media coverage) of a mass shooter. However you were affected, everyone has some emotional baggage, and they may or may not be properly working through it.

Some people keep their story secret because they’ve suppressed it so well they aren’t immediately aware of it. Others keep it a secret because they think they’d just die if anyone found out. Unfortunately, emotional baggage can cause us to become stuck. It creates insecurities that prohibit us from living our best life in the moment. Insecurities can show up as self-doubt, negative self-talk, low self-esteem, arrogance, conceit, low self-confidence, worry, or indecisiveness. Behaviors that can become dysfunctional are belittling, intimidating, neglecting, hitting, baiting, threatening, manipulating, lying, choking, abstaining, and indulging.

When we’re stuck, the effects aren’t always obvious or overt. For example, we’ve earned two college degrees but still cannot break the desired six-figure income ceiling. We’re smart, beautiful, and accomplished but can’t find genuine romantic love. We’re always around loads of friends and have managed to establish a social calendar that would make Oprah and Gayle blush, but we feel lonely, lost, and purposeless. We’re driven, task-oriented, and the highest producer quarter after quarter, but life still feels aimless and empty. We’ve got the gorgeous husband and brilliant kids, but we feel invisible and underappreciated.

Occurrences are bubbling over, becoming systemic and uncontrollable in homes, schools, and workplaces all over the country. Divorce, addiction, domestic violence, and sexual abuse are social ills that create deep-seated emotional baggage that seeps from the secrecy of our families into mainstream malls, entertainment complexes, and workplaces. Over time they deteriorate the soul of the person carrying the hurt and shame of the trauma, causing that person to inflict wounds on other people. Every problem you have is your responsibility, regardless of who caused it. Take responsibility to not pass your pain to the next generation.

Managing emotional wellness with silence has driven us into a hurricane of destruction on every societal level—from the family to the workplace, church, and school. The bad news is that emotional baggage is killing our communities. The good news is that over the last decade or so, the tide has turned, and emotional wellness is now a societal priority. No longer are we expected to nurse our wounds in silence. It’s the best time to find your authentic self and live a fulfilled life of joy. At no other time in history have we had as many life coaches, counselors, and clinicians abundantly available to assist you or corporate brands publicly championing for mental health causes and social responsibility. Now is the time for you to move past the stories that cause you pain. This is your moment. This is your pivotal place in space and time. It is no longer a situation of chance—you get to decide to win!

  CRACK THE MASK, BREAK THE MOLD

With this book, I want to help you accept your past and decide it will no longer control your future. I want you to discover the past experiences that created your limiting beliefs and fuel your sabotaging behavior so you can beam with joy from the inside out. I want you to utilize the process of continuous growth and development. Living the same year ninety-nine times is not living a life. There’s more, and you can do more than have it—you can thrive in it. I want you to remove the restrictions your past has put on your ability to feel free to live true to your own personality, spirit, and character.

You have to crack the mask to define success and happiness for yourself: In your wildest dreams, what would give you the greatest joy? Think of three things that, if you owned them or earned them, would make you feel like you are living your best life. For example, my three things would be a private jet, a five-acre estate, and a home management staff—no debt. What are your three things? Now, let’s do this. Pick up your cell phone (yes, I know it is right there next to you), join my Facebook Group at https://www.ThatAnitaLive.com/group, and post your “Best Life Top 3.” We are a safe circle of compassion and understanding. Who knows, your “Best Life Top 3” may pop up in your direct messages when you least expect it as a reminder that dreams do come true—you just have to put in the work.

But understand, time is of the essence. Change is evident and always evolving. Just as times changed to produce a new day of pride in one’s authentic self, it can quickly change to make anyone with an emotional issue a dangerous detriment to society. The focus of pop culture and public opinion is largely dependent upon the latest major headline—good or bad. The pendulum swing affects the openness with which we can practice self-help. Today, hashtags that end in “pride” fill every social media timeline daily, but how long will we be able to live unashamed? No one knows, which is why you need to move to create the life you were destined to live now. It’s time to soar to your next level in life. Will you continue to go round and round on the merry-go-round of sameness, or will you jump and reach for destiny’s brass ring of happiness and success?

  IT’S YOUR TIME TO SOAR

In this book, I’m educating, entertaining, and teaching you a new process for dealing with emotional baggage. This process will not only help you to stop living an aimless life but will teach you how to sustain your momentum and steadily accomplish your goals. I’m going to educate you by demonstrating how childhood trauma becomes adult dysfunctional behavior through my own personal stories. I’m going to entertain you with my southern colloquialisms and quick-witted tongue but also by showing you the silver lining to your own dark clouds, the good things that have come out of all those tough times. Lastly, I’m going to teach you how to defend and prioritize what is most important—your happiness and your health.

That new process is my 7-Step Method, which got me off the emotional spin cycle. The basic format of the chapters in Section I are the same. First, I share a personal story highlighting a certain type of abuse and its lasting effects. In some chapters, I give you multiple examples of abusive incidents. I need you to know abusive behavior is not a onetime event. When a survivor says “I was abused,” the listener hears and sees one single event. I need you to see, hear, and feel that abuse is repetitive and will persist as long as the perpetrator has access to the victim.

Each chapter will also feature a Lesson to Learn section highlighting the dysfunctional behavior resulting from the abuse (the effects), and how the 7-Step Method can be used to overcome the maladaptive behavior (the technique). The activities will teach you how to minimize toxicity, maximize what serves you, and enjoy a meaningful life. Section II of this book—chapters seven, eight, and nine—shares with you how to keep your momentum going once you’ve gotten free.

The Techniques of the 7-Step Method are:

Step One – Life Mapping Step Two – Track and Trace Step Three – Dispose of Distractions Step Four – Celebrating Self Step Five – Inner Peace and Quiet Step Six – Emotional Equation (Performance Review) Step Seven – Gratitude and Give Back

  My Successful 7-Step Method Affirmations include:

1. The better I know the person within, the happier I can make her.

2. I am the master of my emotions. I control them, they don’t control me.

3. Having boundaries shows I want self-respect. Forcing people to adhere to my boundaries shows I have self-respect.

4. I am precious.

5. I am peace. I am peaceful. I am at peace.

6. I am in a perfecting process.

7. I am receiving goodness and giving greatness back.

  My successful 7-Step Method Activities include:

1. Life Mapping 2. Tracking and Tracing 3. Disposing of Distractions 4. Celebrating Self 5. Inner Peace and Quiet (Bonus: Finding My Father Collage) 6. Solving Your Emotional Equation 7. Gratitude and Give Back (Bonus activity: Creating a Family of Choice)

This book does not include a comprehensive list of all of the Affirmations, Techniques, or Activities in my 7-Step Method. It does include all the steps. However, I’ve carefully selected the specific Affirmation, Technique, and Activity that best correspond with the lesson to be learned from the True Story in the chapter.

WHY LISTEN TO ME?

I hear you, I hear you. Who is this woman and why should I listen to her? Why should I continue to read this book? Let me give you four reasons: my education, my career experience, my personal experience, and most important—my gift.

I’ve earned three degrees—a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, a Master of Education in Counseling, and a Master in Business Administration—and I do mean earned. I attended all my own classes, wrote all my own papers, and conducted all my own research. I learned from professors that cared more for my well-rounded, intellectual development and my ability to rise to the top than my feelings.

But I’m not just heavy on the education side; I’m also qualified by career experience. I’ve counseled, coached, and trained hundreds of people between the ages of eleven and fifty through their own personal transformations and professional endeavors. I’ve been a summer teen program counselor and a middle school guidance counselor. I’ve worked as a counselor in a life skills, education, and technical job training program as well as a career services counselor at a college. And I’m still that one friend everyone seeks out when they need help with their challenges. In addition, as you will learn in later chapters, I’ve been on every side of emotional baggage.

I am an expert because of the combination of my education, career experience, personal experience, and heavenly gifting at identifying where you’re stuck and mapping out how to move you from where you are to where you want to be in life. Yes, I said “heavenly gifting.” Consider what world-renowned celebrity personality Steve Harvey tells his audiences all over the world about The Gift:

“At birth God gave each and every one of us a gift. A gift is something you do the absolute best, with the least amount of effort. Gifts are more than just running, jumping, singing, and dancing. Your gift is where your success and happiness will be found.”

My gift is counseling—picking apart people’s insecurities and helping them find their emotional wellness. When life throws everything at you, when you’re buried under the mess of this world, I am the hand that you reach for, the hand that will pull you out of the dust, dirt, and mud, then teach you how to live a life of joy, love, and peace.

  ARE YOU WITH ME?

Nothing gives you a better understanding of a topic than a 360-degree experience, and as I’ve said, I’ve been the victim, the witness, and the conduit God uses to heal.

Using that full panoramic view, I have made this my mission—you will:

· Be EQUIPPED to boldly go beyond your comfort zone and refresh, reinvent, and revise your life for the better.

· Learn how to TRANSFORM negative thinking into positive thinking with 7 affirmations, 7 results-driven techniques, and 7 actionable activities.

· Learn how to DEFY your limiting beliefs about yourself and create a life you’ll love living.

· Be EMPOWERED to do more for yourself and demand even more from others.

· Learn how to CHANGE your self-sabotaging behavior.

· Learn how to RELEASE fear.

· Be MOVED by the vivid and transparent personal stories of violent abuse to realize you are not the only one with a past and it doesn’t define your destiny or stop you from getting it.

In chapter two we’ll examine the importance of self-awareness and why no one should know you better than you. We’ll review the benefits and the life-changing effects each benefit can have on us. Turn the page, and let’s get started.

( Continued… )

© 2018 All rights reserved. Book excerpt reprinted by permission of the author, Anita Washington. Do not reproduce, copy or use without the author’s written permission. This excerpt is used for promotional purposes only.

  Explore Books Anita Washington

AnitaTheAuthor.com/FINEAmazon (Amazon)

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  About the Author Anita Washington, M.Ed. & M.B.A., CEO & Founder of That Anita Live, LLC, host of the TV show That Anita Live and The Emotional Happiness Podcast with That Anita Live provides a platform for women to learn, laugh and more importantly heal emotionally by learning from the challenges and successes of others.

A former school and community agency counselor and creator of the 7-Step Method, Anita’s helped guide people from the ages of eleven to fifty through their own life issues, personal transformations and professional endeavors. With an old soul and a comedic, honest voice. She uses many southern colloquialisms and colorful expressions to unwrap personal stories of surviving a homicidal alcoholic father, a mother in denial and four physically and emotionally abusive brothers and relates them to guiding principles and healing techniques.

Through her powerful and uplifting interviews at ThatAnitaLive.TV and The Emotional Happiness Podcast women get to see and hear real women with resourceful stories living relentless lives after life’s most devastating events. Through her charismatic and compelling speaking, Anita helps women use the tools and resources they already have to reveal and release success blockers such as childhood trauma and family dysfunction to build self-confidence, boost their self-esteem and feel free to live true to their own personality, spirit and character.

She has self-published two books: number one ranked ebook, 7 Simple Steps to Beat Emotional Baggage: How To Become Whole, Healed, Healthy & Happy, which shares actionable techniques that will walk women through letting go of the past and rising above the glass ceiling to reach higher levels of success and satisfaction in life and newly released book (ebook and paperback), Family Is Not Everything: How To Minimize Their Mess, Maximize Your Happiness and Enjoy Emotional Baggage Breakthroughs which shares trauma stories you can relate to along with the seven techniques, affirmations and activities to help you heal.

From nine-to-five, Anita is a Senior Acquisition Support Specialist, possessing over nineteen years of performing and administering program management and cradle-to-grave commercial and federal contracting activities for acquisitions ranging from $500,000 to over $2 Billion. She has progressively worked her way up the federal acquisition life-cycle and commercial supply chain through various positions from pre-award and requirements definition to commodities buying to contract close-out. In her career, she has mastered the art of transitioning to level-up.

Anita is a graduate of Limestone College, Virginia State University, and Strayer University with a B.S. in Mathematics, an M.Ed. in Guidance & Counseling, and an M.B.A. in Contracts & Acquisitions. You can find Anita online at ThatAnitaLive.com, Twitter, Periscope, Instagram and Facebook. Her handle is That Anita Live on all four social media platforms.

Family Is Not Everything: How To Minimize Their Mess, Maximize Your Happiness and Enjoy Emotional Baggage Breakthroughs by Anita Washington Are people constantly dumping their negative energy on you? Do you find yourself bombarded with painful thoughts from your past?

[racingtoaredlight]

The Intervention

Dear Soused,

We concerned about your addiction and want to help you get professional help. We will support you every step of the way and help you to get the treatment you need.

Lately, we have been unable to count on you Saturday afternoons. You say you have plans but we see your instagram with pictures of you and Kaiser on the couch. Just last week when you told me you were going to meet up but you canceled, then I see you ranting and raving on twitter. I worry about you drifting away. Later, when you finally became available you are confused and exhausted. Sunday you are a shell of yourself.

You seem to be always appear bewildered these days. I miss the confident man who understand the world, knew where he stood.

I have found a special treatment program that can help you. They have an opening right now, and we can drive there today. I know it might not be an easy decision to make, but remember that I will be by your side and there to help you through this.

I hope that you will join me on the path to recovery together. We can to this together, you have the power and resources to stop betting on LSU football games.

We love you, please accept this gift today.

Love,

Concerned Friends and Family

Can you read that letter again but wear something purple? I want to bet the over on boredom. This was rather formulaic like it's been pulled out of the Intervention edition of MadLibs. I'm impressed you managed to put my name in, it was a nice touch. You bitches, I hope you got a gift receipt so I can return this and put the cash on LSU moneyline against Miss St. 

The Doomsday clock has been reset closer to midnight, the oceans are rising, Fascism for Morons is sweeping the globe from Hungary to Brazil, Ontario to Italy. The world seems unmoored, less predictable by the day. Daily newspapers are filled with obscene absurdities once thought impossible, the surreal has become our reality. In the midst of the chaotic world is a cartoon man with the voice of gravel, the successor to a grass eater who called a spike play with no time left. There is a cornerback named Greedy and a Grimace who leaned himself out of the NFL. The mascot is a tiger but they were actually named after a rifle, this did not prevent them from keeping actual tigers.

The drunkest fan base in the country has a pet tiger.

Betting on LSU is taking your anxieties and fears for the unknowable future and confronting them over 5 hours of baffling nonsense. If the unexamined life is not worth living than gambling on LSU is to thrive, you will only have questions after the contest. Who was Brandon Harrris? How do they keep getting these receivers? How is anyone sober enough to find their seats? How is the couching staff still unaware of the concept of linear time? How do you go 4/4 on 4th down against the number two team in the country after losing to a team that lost to Kentucky? Why does the drunkest fan base in the country have a pet tiger? How is there an inexhaustible supply of corn dogs? Did they really false flag litter their own campus with flyers that read, "Go to Hell LSU" which now results in telling Ole Miss fans to go to hell?

The drunkest fan base in the country has a head coach who has been arrested twice for bar fighting.

The Head Coach punches himself in the face before every game. This is the man tasked to sit in living rooms and convince adults their teenage sons should be entrusted to his menacing hands. This is a man who once threatened to fight an entire team, it was his own team.  Once you’ve translated the French away the city is called Red Stick, the original school colours are white and blue, the Tigers wear Gold and Purple. Red Stick is only the capital because of the work of the Bourbon Democrats who were actually conservatives. None of this makes any goddamn sense. 

It's ego and ignorance that convinces humans we are not animals. Our existence is the result of dumb luck and our continued existence is ever less likely. There is no fate, there is no divine providence, we are alone and bare the consequences of each other. Watching LSU helps you abandon Bad Faith, your delusions are undone.

There is nothing more random than LSU Football, to bet upon it is to try and fail in our ruinous pursuit to master nature. To break down our understanding of the world to a simple number, to stake ourselves upon or against that number. It is folly. 

To bet on LSU is to confront the human condition.

I will no longer avoid the terrible and wondrous absurdity of our lives. From now on I will roll the rock of Tiger gambling up the mountain, and I watch it careen back down and feel happy ambling after it to begin anew. 

Geaux Tigers.

[365footballorg-blog]

'More than just a footballer' - why Alves, Lukaku & Sterling turned to The Players' Tribune

“Athletes are often defined by what we do on the pitch, but there’s so much more to us.”

Dani Alves was one of the best defenders in the world and his achievements are well documented. A three-time Champions League winner, who has won league titles in three countries with Barcelona, Juventus and current club Paris St-Germain, plus 107 caps for Brazil.

In his 17 years as a professional footballer, Alves says he never really felt he could tell his life story, the one beyond the public image, until he took matters into his own hands.

He is one of more than 2,000 athletes to contribute to the The Players’ Tribune (TPT) website.

You may have seen Romelu Lukaku[1] and Raheem Sterling[2] do the same during the World Cup. They addressed controversies in their life, hit back at critics and gave raw, honest accounts of their upbringings.

The articles helped change some of the public’s perception and attitude towards them.

It’s a new form of journalism that is becoming more and more prevalent, from social media posts and retirement announcements to Manchester City’s ‘All or Nothing’ documentary. Players are “taking control” of the narrative.

How do they come about?

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“It is as if you have dropped in on a conversation”, says TPT’s New York-based executive editor Sean Conboy. “How they would talk with their friends or family.”

Written in the first person and in their own words, including their mannerisms and colloquialisms – each article is sealed with the player’s signature.

Athletes are treated like writers and are involved in the whole editorial process, right up until publication and Conboy dismisses the notion that the articles are ghost written. They are a collaboration and athletes need to be contactable at all times as they take a “considerable amount of time”.

Alves has written two articles. His first, called The Secret,[3] told his life story and he contacted TPT about it. The second, From My Soul,[4] covered the knee injury that ended his World Cup hopes in Russia and allowed him to “get a message” to his Brazilian fans.

“I was very involved, from the very beginning, til the moment we published,” Alves says.

“My editor came to where I was playing at the time, in Turin. We spent hours together, talking about my life and this piece. We were in constant contact throughout the entire process, right up until we published.

“Not until I knew it was perfect did we post. It was a great process, even cathartic for me. A piece I am very proud of.”

TPT contacted Sterling for his story, but in America some athletes have pitched their own stories and essays, while NFL and NBA stars have announced big transfers on the site.

Some athletes are so invested in the process they are constantly jumping into the shared Google document to make changes and alterations.

Conboy flew over to Manchester and spent hours working with Sterling before the 23-year-old England forward left for the World Cup.

Sterling wanted his story to inspire children from a similar background and the player worked with an editor all the way up to the publication date.

He addressed criticism of his lifestyle and the media “picking on him” because of a perceived love of “bling”. It came after criticism of a gun tattoo, purchasing clothes at high-street chain Primark, and even for buying his mother a house.

Sterling also opened up about his father’s murder and life growing up in London with his mother and sister.

“You just stay out of way and listen, let them talk through their life experiences,” says Conboy. “We do not want this to be something polished, but be raw.”

“These are not made-up stories, not fluff or to sell something,” says TPT chief executive Jeff Levick. “Sterling was not PR, that was his story. It is hard to argue when someone puts themselves out there, lets people see their own trials and adversities.”

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Why do they write them?

TPT was founded by US baseball legend Derek Jeter and backed by athlete investors including NBA legend Kobe Bryant, who announced his retirement[5] with a poem on the site.

Alves in an ambassador, as is Barcelona defender Gerard Pique, who has helped grow the business in Europe.

One reason Alves decided to publish his stories was the chance to show a side to him that fans don’t see on the pitch.

“My life story, growing up, had never been told, not in my words,” he continued.

“Fans are limited to what they consume from traditional media or social media – I wanted to go deeper and take fans on my journey.

“As footballers, we are more than just athletes. We are people, we have families, we have stories, we come from somewhere. It’s being able to show that side. It’s about what you don’t see on the pitch, or hear in a news conference.”

Levick says the site removes the “intermediary” between fans and an athlete and lets them speak in an “unfiltered way, telling the stories they want to tell”.

Conboy adds: “You find they go through so many things in life you can’t capture on Wikipedia or Twitter.

“We are trying to provide a level of empathy and curiosity about their superheroes, for them to be seen as human beings and not just the guy you see on TV. There are only so many things they can say about football.”

Another reason Alves got involved was “control and trust”.

“I was able to be completely honest, to be myself and not worry about anything being taken out of context,” he adds.

“It’s a nice change when you can control the story and make sure the truth and facts are actually what people will read.”

Conboy expands further, saying the players find it a “safe environment” to tell their story.

“For some of these players, English is not their first language,” he says. “It is their second or third language and they feel vulnerable and worried their words will be taken out of context.”

“What we do is help the athlete not let the press control their persona,” adds Levick. “We remove the click-bait headlines and spin.”

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What does it mean for journalism?

Levick was the former chief revenue officer at Spotify and he sees parallels between TPT and the music streaming service. He says the site is a “disruptor” to the news industry, adding: “Traditional journalism covers sports, we cover athletes.”

But Conboy says it complements traditional media rather than replaces it and is “authentic storytelling”, while Alves says journalists are “important to the game of football”.

“Sometimes you want to speak directly to your fans, versus telling your story through a third party,” he adds.

“We speak to the media every day, too, so it’s not like TPT is a replacement for that. But it’s a great platform because it allows us the freedom to be transparent and to not let the message be taken in a way that wasn’t intended.”

“When the stories come out they are genuinely happy,” concludes Conboy. “They feel they have made a connection and created something their kids or grandkids will read.”

References

^ Romelu Lukaku (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Raheem Sterling (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ The Secret, (www.theplayerstribune.com)

^ From My Soul, (www.theplayerstribune.com)

^ announced his retirement (www.theplayerstribune.com)

BBC Sport – Football

'More than just a footballer' – why Alves, Lukaku & Sterling turned to The Players' Tribune was originally published on 365 Football