To My Fellow Athletes Poem by Marlene Rashidi

To my people who are determined.
With hearts ready for challenges.
With minds set on victory.
Motivated by mankind.

To my people who sweat for championship.
Who dwell in the Friday Night Lights.
And who won't hate their challenge, but next them.
Who strive for perfection above the influence.

To my people who put God first,
Who put family before weakness.
Who race miles through the wind of November,
Who their great stories are an inspiration.

To my fellow warriors, keepers, and winners,
We are not stuck up; we are just filled up with energy,
We are not failures when we lost our games,
That's our lesson to learn from. We are not uptight or prideful.

Let us acknowledge the work they put in to;
To represent their school, country, culture and individuality.
Let us acknowledge the resentments of failure they have to deal with,
Let us realize they are heroes, they are fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers.

We are their hope, their supporters, and their motivators.
We are to upraise them and not rebel their abilities.
They are our daughter and son's inspiration.
They are humans.

This is for my teammates,
This is for my sisters and brothers,
Who will shed blood just to run the race, jump the bar,
Pitch, score, dive, skate, swim and hoop and many more.

This is for all my people who dream to accomplish,
Who dedicated themselves, who put their time and energy,
To my optimistic athletes, treat us as one of you.
We are fighters. We are one of you, because we run the same race.