Tomorrow is not guaranteed so be special – #Mamba 9

BY ANDREW STEWART

Sunday, January 26^th, 2020, will be a day that I and so many others won’t forget. It’s the day that felt like the world stopped for a moment in disbelief. The day when at first you saw the news you hoped it was a hoax or fake. I remember very vividly where I was, what I was doing and the first sentence out of my mouth when I found out. I was on my couch watching TV with my youngest daughter on my lap. My partner’s mother was on her phone and read out loud in a shocked voice “Kobe Bryant dies in a helicopter crash.” My first words were “No way that is real” then I turned the channel to CNN and there it was.

The 41-year-old NBA legend Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others killed when their helicopter crashed in Calabasas California. Then my phone starting ringing and messages started flowing in. The story kept changing, first, it was five people then it was all his daughters were involved then it was Rick Fox that was on the helicopter. When the dust finally started to settle the other victims were John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their basketball-playing daughter Alyssa; mother and daughter Sarah and Payton Chester; Mamba Academy basketball coach Christina Mauser; and pilot Ara Zobayan.

We lose people every day, minute by minute, but fairly or unfairly it seems that when a celebrity passes away tragically the world stops and tunes in. The other families devastated by this event get caught up in the wash and are mentioned less. People around the world are touched or affected in some way. It changes us inside and we are never quite the same again. Within minutes of the story breaking, there were millions of social media posts honoring the Bryant family with pictures, videos, and pop-up shrines.

I wrote in one of my tribute post that I admittedly wasn’t a Kobe Bryant fan. You see sports encourages us to choose who our favorite player is, which team, country or city we represent and I chose not to be a Kobe Bryant fan for whatever reason. But what I had to admit to my friend who is a diehard Laker fan was his tenacity to be one of the greatest basketball players to have ever lived.

This is why the title of this article is Mamba 9. Kobe was synonymous with what he called the Mamba Mentality. To sum up, what Mamba Mentality is, it means to be able to constantly try to be the best version of you. The 9 people who lost their lives that day were going to a place to be their versions of their best selves. As I write this article I’m still in a daze and hurting. I try to understand, be empathetic to the family members left behind but all I keep saying is “I don’t know what I would do if that was me.”

Since then I’ve been glued to my phone watching an interview by an athlete, movie star, or celebrity sharing their personal stories about Kobe Bryant. Tragedy has this uncanny way of bringing us together because of our grief and disbelief with the situation. I have made a pact with myself to turn up the volume of my Mamba Mentality. To fight fear whenever it enters my heart and mind regarding goals I want to accomplish. To treat each day with more respect and be a do just a little bit more each day to spread joy and love to people.

I encourage all of you reading this article to channel your inner Mamba Mentality and strive to be the best version of yourself starting today!

Thank You, Kobe Bean Bryant!