He wasn't afraid of letting everyone see how much of an emotional wreck he actually was.
Always down and out. The ultimate come-back kid, always coming back up from some new low. He was the ultimate "drama queen" fighter - you know him. He goes to your gym, too. He's the one who's always acting like every setback is the end of the world; every shin splint, every mismatched fight, every loss, every training day where he (or, for that matter, she) felt off, every molehill is made mountainous. Even the smallest of injuries produces a grimacing limp throughout the gym.
I should clarify before I go further that this was written with no specific person in mind. "OMG, am I that guy?!? Is she writing about that one time I bitched about (insert injury here)?!?" No. And stop it. Everyone is guilty of Drama Queen Rocky moments. I am totally guilty of some hardcore Drama Queen Rocky moments. So are you. Some are more guilty than others.
Drama Queen Rocky usually gets under everyone's skin faster than a mosquito in Southeast Asia. Everyone loves to talk about just how much of a drama queen he is. He is publicly shamed for "being a pussy." Everyone loves to point out his mistakes. But you know what? At the end of the day, everyone always loves the Drama Queen Rocky. They have no problem telling him to man up to his face, but if someone says something about him or does something to him that's truly vindictive, his gym fellows take serious offense and will be the first to put the vindictive in their place. Why?
For every annoying thing Drama Queen Rocky manages to say or do, there is one simple truth to it. He's usually right. He's over-the-top about it, but he shamelessly expresses all the things most people are too afraid to say but were thinking anyway. Yeah, training injuries do really hurt. Yeah, shin splints and mismatches and setbacks are incredibly frustrating. Everyone is sinking their blood, sweat, and tears into this endeavor. We can all see those things - they exist in the realm of the physical, the tangible, you can taste and feel and smell them. But everyone is sinking their heart and soul in it, too. Standard-issue manliness demands that the bleeding of the soul and the tears of the heart be masked as much as possible. Wear leg bruises with pride, but suck up the heartbreak of your most recent loss. Stuff down all the non-physical pain as far as it will go, and never let anyone be the wiser.
Drama Queen Rocky doesn't follow standard-issue manliness rules. Instead, he just is. Unapologetically is. Shamelessly is. Honestly is. And we can all learn something from him.
He's the bellwether of the gym mood, and seeing his emotional struggles pass unfiltered over his raw visage like reflections over water reminds us that it's okay to feel that way, too. None of us are infallible. And the minute we stop thinking we are, the minute we stop thinking we're already so damn perfect, then we might actually be wrecked and weak and shameless enough to actually learn something. To cry and whine about it and feel better afterward. To admit we need help. To then receive that help. To let pain empty out the cup we thought was full, to grieve it's actual emptiness, then to realize the opportunity to fill it with more. To grow. To become better fighters (and people) because we grew, and realize that an awareness and understanding of the pain it took to do so was integral in the doing so. To just be, and not care who witnesses the pain of that process.
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