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By Caprice Coleman
Congratulations to Jonathan Gresham for winning the ROH Pure Title Tournament and becoming the first Pure Champion in 14 years. In reflecting on the tournament, I noticed that multiple participants had a support system in their tag team partners.
I watched Silas Young become Josh Woods’ cornerman after Young had been eliminated. When Gresham defeated Tracy Williams in the finals, Jay Lethal came out to celebrate him and celebrate with him. This really stood out to me because it showed what type of friendship Gresham and Lethal have.
Lethal’s gesture was especially significant considering Lethal had lost to Williams in the semifinals. It’s important to have the type of friend who is willing to celebrate you and celebrate with you even if you succeed at something they were unsuccessful at.
The question is: What type of friend are you and what type of friends do you have?
I believe everybody needs some form of support system. These are the people in your life who will encourage you, push you, and also tell you when you’re doing something out of character.
Without these people in your life, you can be going down the wrong road and not know it, or you can be onto something great but not be confident about it. The confirmation from your friends will help you embrace what you’re doing.
If a friend can truly celebrate you, that means they’re happy for you and not afraid to let you have your moment. They’ll add to it as much as possible to make sure you’re able to maximize pivotal moments in your life. This is the type of friend that will throw you a party. The friends that celebrate with you are the ones who will come to that party.
Both types of friends are great to have in your life. To be that type of friend yourself, you can’t be jealous of your friends’ accomplishments, discourage their ambitions, or belittle their dreams. You are your friends’ first source of outside confirmation. If they don’t get past you, their dreams could be dashed prematurely.
It’s possible to be the wrong type of friend and not know it. Most people advise through their own eyes. They say stuff like, “I wouldn’t do that.” But even worse is to say, “If I were you.”
A translation of that would be, “If I were in the same shoes you are in, I wouldn’t do it.” Many times when we say this, we’re not acknowledging the differences between each other.
It was easy for me to see that Lethal believed in Gresham’s ability to make it to the finals of the tournament. He’d hoped to face him in the finals, but it didn’t happen. However, that did not stop him from supporting and celebrating his friend when he won the championship.
Take time to reflect on your friends and their roles in your life. Also reflect on the role you play in theirs. It’s good to do this from time to time.
In life, we should be constantly improving and moving forward, and if your friends aren’t encouraging this, you might want to get new ones.
Just something to think about. I call it a dose of Colemanism.
Caprice Coleman is ROH’s color analyst and has been wrestling for more than 20 years. He also is an ordained minister and motivational speaker. “A Dose of Colemanism” appears every Thursday.
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