Lions and Gazelles

When I was younger and I did martial arts, I remembered a saying all throughout my training: “The lion wakes up every morning knowing he has to be faster that the slowest gazelle. The gazelle wakes up knowing he has to be faster than the slowest lion.” I repeated it to myself throughout my training because I knew that I had to be better trained, better ready for battle than anyone that would ever try to hurt me or the people I care about. So I trained endlessly, for hours at a time, every single day.

A lot of people take that expression to mean that they need to be a lion. Of course they would. Lions are bad ass. They’re the kings of the jungle. They’re the predators.

But fuck that. I’m a gazelle. I don’t want to just be faster than the slowest gazelle, I want to be faster than the fastest lion. I want to be well trained enough to not just outrun the lion, but to taunt him. To tease him. Make him think he’s going to get me just before I burst off with another sprint. And then when he’s winded and out of breath, that’s when I’ll stab him with my antlers. And when the lion is laying on the ground wounded, he’ll look up and see me mocking him.

“Who’s the predator now, bitch?”