Knockout

The crowd rumbled with a hundred conversations in the packed arena. The smell of popcorn, salted peanuts, and sweat mixed with the electricity in the air. Men in 3 piece suits with loosened ties, sat next to farmers and factory workers still in their work attire, conversing. Taking the center of the ring, a man in a suite lifted a microphone up to his lips and the lights dimmed. Over in the corner, a short, but built man stood, shaking his arms and bouncing up and down, waiting. The crowd hushed as the man with the microphone spoke in a deep and exhilarating tone.

“Welcome, to tonight’s Golden Glove lightweight bout!”

The man in the corner continued to shake his arms and move his legs. The crowd roared as a man in black trunks entered the ring and waved to the crowd. The suited man lowered his voice once again.

“And in this corner, standing 5’7’’, weighing 126 lbs, from Hankinson, North Dakota your lightweight champion, James Jahner!

The man in the corner stopped jumping, put up his gloves and took the ring as cameras flashed and the crowd roared.

My grandfather, James Jahner, wasn’t a perfect boxer. He was a persistent one.

Persistence, by definition, is “firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.”

Persistence can be found in all walks of life, not just boxing.

In the 1980s, the American Agriculturist had to do all they could to keep their operations afloat. Whether it was high-interest rates, low market prices, drought or all of the above, life was grim. Companies began to collapse and merge, families lost their homes, Christmas gifts were merely the free items the seed salesman handed out. But some held on. If you are looking for a real-world example of persistence after being knocked down, talk to a farmer who made it through the 80s.

But where is persistence today? In our throw-away culture, what happened?

“Something isn’t working? We’ll buy new!” “He/she and I just couldn’t work things out, so we broke up.” “It was too hard, took too much time, so I quit.”

It makes no sense. Where’s the grit? Where’s the can-do attitude? Where’s the passion?

Rocky, although fictional, is one of the most recognizable boxers in the history of the sport said, “It ain’t about how hard ya can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” That goes for everyone, not just boxers. Life is difficult, and that’s ok. Life is about what you do in the face of that difficulty. Did you fight or did you let go? Did you plant one more year and pray for the Crisis to end? Were you persistent?

I ask you, whatever it is you care about, whether it’s faith, family, school, or work, don’t let it go easily. Stay after it. Put your gloves up and fight for it! When you get tired, or when you fail, think before you throw in the towel, because you never know if your next punch is going to be a Knockout.

Go Get Em,

Chandler Jahner

State President