It’s been about two hours now; Chad and I are in the battle of the century. Its tied one set all, against the top doubles team in the state. Currently were playing in the third, game score is 5-4. All we have to do is hold serve to win this match. It’s my serve; I feel the pressure in the air as the whole tournament comes over to our court to watch our match. For the first two points, I drop two bombs into the service box, close to 120 mph and aced my opponents. We were up 30 love, all we had to do was win the next two points to win the match. I hit a spin serve to change up the pace and rushed into the net as fast as I could to hit my first volley. They hit the return cross-court where I then make a first volley. We end up having a 5-ball rally before our opponents gave us a lob and Chad smashes it away. We have triple match point! Chad and I can tell our opponents are choking from all of the pressure. I take my pre-shot routine; I bounce the ball twice and toss it up to serve. I hit my American twist serve into the service box, and they chip the return back. Chad then poaches to put the ball away. We hear the crowd clapping as we walk up to the net to shake each other’s hands. We walk out of the court and shake hands with our friends/coaches as they congratulate us on our incredible win. As we head to get our trophy we feel, "badass" for taking out the first seed and one of the best doubles teams in the state.?

The win at that tournament gave each other a sense of being bad asses. This brings me to a time where Chad and I were in Kona and we bought pink hats. I went to the cashier to pay for our hats and that was the start of the fun adventures that we were about to have in Kailua Kona! I became so imbued with my hat I began to feel like I was a complete badass (some would beg to differ). From morning to night -- PINK! I hear all my friends laughing with derision. They ask why, would you buy that girly hat?  I muster up the confidence to tell them the truth. REAL MEN WEAR PINK! (Admittedly, you got to be pretty confident to pull it off); I then back it up by saying that I thought this hat looked very cool. My hat has a black bill, the head piece is pink with the Hawaiian Islands drawing, and a see through back that keeps my head cool. What makes this hat so personal for me is that on the pink part, there are Palm trees drawn on the big island as if it's marking that the big island as the special island out of all of the other islands. To me in my opinion, the Big Island is a special island due to its scenery, open lands, the animals, and the teaming amounts of fish over there (isn't over fished like here on Oahu). I soon realized that I was the only one that had a deep connection with my hat, forged from treasured childhood memories, while everyone else saw it as a pink girly hat.
                

 How someone dresses stimulates there mind, so wearing this pink hat stimulates Chad and I to think that we are badasses, which boosts our confidence. Which leads me back to Kona when Chad and I played doubles together. Chad and I wanted to look extraordinary, we wanted something special, hence we wore black pants with a pink shirt and we wore our matching pink hats. Chad realized that his hat looked off if he wore it normally, even though no one really cared how he wore it or what he wore at all. Remarkably he went for the modern 21st Century style of wearing the cap backwards with black Ray bands to look cool. Meanwhile I didn’t’t really care how people looked at me so I just wore my cap normally. As we were playing our match many of our friends laughed with derision, mocking us on how we looked like a pink crayon.  We played one point that was very hilarious where it was a 5 ball rally, everyone was at net and my partner Chad gives our opponents a very short lob. They take aim with a overhead as I stand there holding my ground at the net. BANG! They hit the smash head high right at my face. Instinctually I ducked quickly, but not quick enough and the ball hit my hat off of my head. After that one point, I played aggressively and somewhat pugnaciously where any high ball that I got (where I would usually volley for open court) I went straight at my opponents -- I wanted blood.  I started play as if my opponents had targets on there chests and surprisingly, we started to come back when I played that way. My hat started to build up my confidence I felt invincible wearing a hat.
   

 Clothing has a significant effect on self-esteem and confidence says experts. Putting on different clothes creates different thoughts and mental processes. I believe to be confident; it all starts with your mind. My hat is not a fashion statement; but instead lets me mentally think that I am badass. Most people would imagine a bad ass to be wearing something black that appears scary. Well I'm living proof that that assumption is wrong, I wear my pink hat and am proud to be a badass. In tennis, athletes are always hungry to win. Many top players pose and act as if they are badass; and the effect of this kind of behavior is disastrous. Many posers have a bad attitude on court, to a extent where if they loose a point they will throw there racket and try to break the ball, to act badass. I am a badass who wears a pink hat and has a hunger to win on court. I am the real deal, I am the Dirty Harry of tennis.