The Fight

The Reluctant Fight
It was a warm autumn day, my jacket was carelessly tossed on the ground, my fists were white knuckled, my eyes were intently focused, my heart was beating hard and fast, and in that instant I thought, how did I get here? Some might consider it as a rite of passage when a boy becomes a man, some might consider it to be barbaric and ignorant, either way I was about to embark in my first fist-fight.
It was 1993 in seventh grade at Oskaloosa Jr. High School I was a skinny kid with no immediate problems, plenty of friends, a good family, average grades, and no reason to be angry or violent. I had a group of friends who would play a quick game of touch football after lunch and right before the next period. To this day I can’t recall how the initial confrontation occurred. All I know is that after a play I turned to walk to the huddle and was struck in the back with some sort of flying drop kick by Cory Courtney who up till this point was a friend of mine. A little baffled I laughed uneasily hoping it was a bad joke. After a few choice words from Cory I soon realized he was truly angry with me. A crowd quickly gathered around us. At this point all of my friends had their eyes on me; awaiting my reaction to the verbal and physical abuse, not wanting to show my true fear I puffed out my chest and rattled off some choice words of my own. That was it. It was like it had somehow been carved in stone, we were going to fight not with words but with fists. ...

The Fight

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