Never give up!

Last month, four kids in my son’s class dressed up in the exact same costume for Halloween – some donning his signature blue and white stripes, and some donning a that unique pink Inter Miami jersey. It’s one that I might not have recognized had soccer/football not become increasingly more popular in the US (we are still catching up with the rest of the world!). Lionel Messi is making waves again this year – six months after winning the World Cup for Argentina, he left the elite leagues to play for Miami under the US’s Major League Soccer. Since then, the pink Miami jerseys have been sold out, along with all of his games. Everyone wants a chance to see perhaps the best player of our generation, play before he retires completely.

Messi was born in Rosario, Argentina to humble beginnings – his father was a factory steel worker, and his mother was a part-time cleaner. He played football from a very young age – at around five he started playing at a local club coached by his father, and became part of a practically undefeated local team. Then, at 11, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency – a medical condition caused by problems in the pituitary gland, which often leads to growth failure. He was the size of most 8-9 year olds at the time. The director of Futbol Club Barcelona had heard about Messi’s talent, auditioned him, and offered to pay his medical bills on the condition that he moved to Spain. A decade later, he had received Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He’s commonly ranked as the best player in the world, and rated by some as the greatest of all time.

Photo Credit: Hossein Zohrevand under CC BY 4.0 DEED

It strikes me just how easy it would have been for Messi and his family to give up on his dream. When he was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency, he and his family could have just resolved that he would play football recreationally. When his family could not afford the treatment, they could have stopped there. When he started playing for Futbol Club Barcelona, there were times where he was nearly released from the club because of financial constraints. At every bend, Messi came across obstacles, and he and his family found ways to overcome them. They never gave up. At Impact Network, while we are working towards a very different goal, it’s really helpful to have our heroes live these values out throughout their lives. We also need to live by those words – that when we are faced with students that are struggling in certain subjects, when we have teachers that we need to improve in certain ways, when we are faced with complications in our classrooms – it’s up to us to persevere. It’s up to us to never give up on our students and communities.

-Reshma