Manifest Monday: @ASkaters (With Inspiration from @ONEFELIX & @AMMOUSA)
I need to thank @Onefelix for starting the Manifest Monday movement. I feel like Manifest Mondays are a good opportunity to focus on something positive at the beginning of the week, the calm before the storm if you will. As our war rages on during the week, for some of us it's in the streets, on a board, behind a camera, or at a 9-5 job...it gets hectic. Life speed wobbles are inevitable, whether it's stress over how to make ends meet, fights with a trick at a spot, or dealing with 140 raging elementary school jammers in a before & after school program (take my word for it). Having something positive to reflect on can not only offer a cleanse from battle wounds, but can help you choose better AMMO for how you are going to fight your up-coming battles. You can kill them with kindness, with a frontside shove it to backside smith grind (shout outs to Manny Santiago), or you can VIVA.LA.REVOLUTION & stay 10 steps ahead of the game, going on your own route... doing things by any means necessary & hope for the best.
No matter which way you look at it, everyone in this thing we call skatelife is fighting for something: a job with their dream company/distribution, to get their photo published, to go AM/PRO, to put themselves in a position to make a living off of skateboarding etc. For others, they use skateboarding as their AMMO to fight against something else. A perfect example would be Crys from A.Skate. Before writing this blog, I watcher her Pass The Bucket Video numerous times, and couldn't help but cry. I don't know if it's because I feel a sense of connection because for years I've balanced my skatelife journey with working at schools, and have worked hands on with autistic kids since the 8th grade. Using skateboarding, her and everyone involved with A.SKATE, are helping those kids who have been diagnosed with autism, have an outlet in the present and future. It's an everyday battle to educate the kids (and sometimes adults) around them to understand that although they may act, sound, or look different, that they are capable and deserve the same respect and opportunity as everyone else. Those kids also have to fight everyday battles, the severity ranging depending on their level of functionality of their autism. I could think of no better ammo to kill any sense of doubt people have for those with autism, then by putting a skateboard under their feet and watching them grow in a plethora of ways.
Like Crys says in the video, they will have skateboarding as a form of an outlet as they evolve and grow up. In my eyes, for them to be able to experience skateboarding and have a social setting, only transforms them into beautiful "souldiers", who become armed with valuable weapons: the weapon of love, the weapon of freedom, the weapon of an extended family all over the world, and the weapon of that indescribable feeling of having a skateboard under you, that only those those who skate understand and experience. As they grow older, they can use those weapons to fight their daily battles just like we do everyday, but they will be a part of and connected with us on a whole other level, through skatelife. I send out a call to arms for all of you to check out their website, watch the video I posted above, follow them on twitter, to figure out a way to get involved, and if possible, to donate to this amazing cause.
xo-fullyclaired