Streaks

We sat at our MAAC Championship banquet and watched the Iona College Gaels walk up on stage to collect their championship trophy. We also sat there and listened to the MAAC commissioner comment about how it was their 21st consecutive MAAC title. For twenty one straight years they have won the MAAC title. That means that from the year I was born until today Iona has never lost a conference championship. It is a streak that I acknowledge is much more impressive then it is given credit for. However, as impressed by the streak as I am, there is always a common theme among streaks...They have to end.

They have won for 21 straight years, yet I could only sit there and think about the one year they don't win. I have never in my lifetime seen them lose, yet all I could think about was the one moment when they do. People might think I am crazy. I would most likely agree with them. I am crazy, but you have to be crazy in order to believe in what many people might call the impossible. All streaks end. It isn't a crazy concept that I've made up in my head. It is fact and it has numerous real-life examples that back it up.

Why am I writing about this? I'm writing about it because there will always be times in our lives when we feel down. There will always be times when we believe someone we work with, are friends with, or related to, gets everything they want. We will sit there an wonder why not us? We will wonder why, after all the hard work we put in, we are not getting what we deserve.

This streak has taught me one thing. What is going to happen that one day it comes to an end? Will we be too busy complaining that the opportunity passes us by? I've always believed that complacency is the enemy of victory. When you get what you want over and over again, how badly are you going to continue wanting it? How badly are you going to continue working for it? Sooner or later you will get lazy and assume it will just happen. On the other hand, when you are constantly denied something you feel is rightfully yours, that is when you are at your strongest. When you are the ones fighting for what you want, that is when you believe the most.

All streaks have to come to an end, but we need to be ready for the moment they do. We need to persevere and continue to inch forward step by step. It may take 10 years. It may take 20 years, but one day that streak will end and when it does we need to be ready.

Greatness is not a gift. Greatness is achieved.