The Art of not Quitting

What is your definition of success?  What is success?  What makes someone want to be successful?

You can do anything if you work hard and seek support from others

I truly believe that in order to reach a level of success in your personal endeavors that their has to be some kind of struggle, some barrier that has been overcome or simply learning by failing.  I am okay with failing at something, it has never been a problem for me because I always took the lessons I learned and turned them into determination to get better.  To be honest, as humans we have many talents and things we are good at, but I remember an old football coach telling me he is not interested in what I can do well, but more interested in working on things that need improvement.

Work on your weaknesses and turn them into strengths

It is true, it is easy to stay positive when everything is going well for us and easy to get complacent in the things we are good at, but what about turning our weaknesses into strengths by challenging our comfort zone and honing skills we never knew we had.  I became a more complete human because of this philosophy and a more complete player. When times get tough in life, I just worked harder and even though quitting would be a legitimate option, we must buckle down and complete our commitments, keep our promises and follow through.  These are traits we trust in other people, think of all the people that let you down in life, or thrust their negativity on to you.  They had these things in common because they broke promises, quit on you and had a hard time following through on their word.  Now think of our mentors, the people we look up to and those that inspire our spirit, what did they do, they kept promises, never quit on you and followed through every time.  It is important to surround yourself with positive, innovative and goal oriented people because they will push you to your maximum capacity and allow you to live a fulfilling life while doing it.

We have all had moments in our life that have shaped us, true moments of resiliency that allowed us to overcome obstacles.  I want to discuss three times in my life where I almost quit and how I was able to pull through these extreme moments:

When I was a young man my father put me in a lot of sports, mostly I think this was to keep me out of trouble.  I had many great coaches and met many amazing team mates, but I remember one year in baseball when I was a young kid I witnessed a team mate get hit in the face with a hardball and his noes started bleeding like crazy.

  This was a scary moment and I remember thinking I don't want my face to get hit with a baseball, who would want that, so I told my dad that I wanted to quit.  My father did not get upset, but rather said "why don't we drop you down a league and give it one more chance, and if you still want to quit then at least you know you are done with the game".  I thought to myself, this is a pretty good deal and the next season they dropped me down from the Double A league to the Single A league.  I was having a great year with the Tigers, I was pitching well and hitting well and we even won the league championship that year and I hit the game winning home run.  I would continue with competitive hardball until I was 25 years old, it is amazing where understanding and support can take a person.

Senior Men's Baseball (Whitesox) with my Brother John

The second big moment was when I was 16 years old and I was getting my first summer job at Ipsco wild life park.  This was the steel mill that my father worked at and low and behold they had an actual wildlife park next door.

  I felt it unfair that my father would make me do this hard full time summer job when many of my friends were on holidays with family, or lazing around.  My father was a practical man and always out to work with a number of older kids.  Instantly, I struggled to get the industrial whipper snipper started and felt like a complete loser out there.  After one week, I went to my Dad and Mom and told them that I want to quit and again my Dad pulled me aside and explained that everything new is always going to be challenging and that I should at least stick it out till I got my first pay cheque and then if I still hated it, I could quit, but that also meant probably never being hired back in the summers.  In that case, I continued to go to work and when I finally received my first pay cheque at 7.15/hour

 and this was in 1998, I was elated and felt rich, so I could not leave this new sense of financial freedom.  Eventually, the job just became a job and I wen to to work in that park for 7 summers, even taking stints in the Steel Mill and the Pipe Mill and made a ton of friends on that journey.

My third example, comes when I am quite a bit older and also comes with some heartache.  In 2005, I walked into my Human Justice Practicum and said hello to all the familiar people, but then noticed this very beautiful girl I had never seen before.

Hanne Op de Beeck

During introductions she announced herself as Hanne from Belgium and I just knew that I had to somehow get to know her.

I worked at the Library at the time as a Student Assistant Librarian and one night she walked in and said hello to me.  I asked her what she was up to and had to get some books for her paper that was on the topic of feminism and having worked at the library for 5 years, I knew where this section was.  I grabbed some books to go and head to the section to file them away and again bumped into her and we struck up a longer conversation and in a very shy way I asked her if I could get her email to go for a coffee and she agreed.  This book stack on the 3rd floor was the very same place I would propose to her about 5 years later.  Needless to say that we started a relationship that was about 8 years long and in 2012 it came to a crashing halt in Belgium when I was living there as an immigrant.  It just wasn't working anymore, the engagement was off and the relationship had played it's course, broken hearted I went back to Canada to start working again at the First Nations University of Canada.  This was hard for me because I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my rib cage and I was in a complete place of "lovers shock".

I had a commitment during reading week to facilitate some sessions with INCOMDIOS on Human Rights/Indigenous Rights and the United Nations to Indigenous Sami youth and European Youth.  Reading week always takes place over my birthday and Hanne was going to meet me in Geneva, which was the early plan, seeing as I left Belgium that December.  However, Hanne canceled on me, so I was going heart broken by myself for my first international contract to Switzerland when I felt empty inside.  Needless to say I wanted to cancel, every inch of my being wanted to make an excuse of why I could not make it, but one night I was talking with my brother John Pogo and told him of my decision.  He immediately told me that quitting this opportunity would be a large mistake and that I committed and need to follow through, what's the worst that could happen.  He was right, I flew to Geneva, met up with my amazing friend that I met in Vienna in 2007 Giorgio Mariano

Giorgio Mariano in Vienna at the Karaoke Bar :)

and had some great sessions.  I met some amazing youth from Swizterland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Bulgaria, Romania and Italy.  On my birthday they all came out to buy me drinks and to celebrate and it was just the greatest time in my life.  When I returned to Canada, I even got a call from Per Jonas from Sweden and he wanted me to come and facilitate some sessions in Vilhelmina Sweden in that May for Saminuorra, a Sami youth organization.  I ended up going to Sweden to hangout with some of my Sami friends and when I arrived back I got an opportunity back in Lethbridge and would end up moving back here in 2013 and this was the best decision I could have ever made.

Sami friends in Switzerland

Amazing 30th Birthday in Switzerland with some amazing youth.

There are so many stories and times I wanted to quit, like the time I moved to Vienna and had culture shock in 2007 and wanted to go home.  I stayed and I completed the internship at the University of Vienna.  I owe a lot to the people around me that motivate me, inspire me, love me, celebrate me and pick me up when I fail. 

Roy Pogorzelski