Listen Now: The Sage Steele Show | Reggie Watts
04:46 Share

There was a time when this guy, you know, whatever, lunged at me and I flinched and he happened to be like the kid that was known as like one of the hardest hitting kids in school. Like he was like one of the toughest kids in school. And so...

He owed me a hit, but it was too late for him to hit me back because the bell rang or whatever before we were supposed to. And so we left, and he's like, I owe you. And I was like, fuck. And so I was trying everything to avoid him for a few days. And then finally, I knew he was in the locker room at gym. And one day, I just went straight in the locker room, and I went straight up to him. I was like, let's just get this over with.

- It was like weighing on you. - Yeah, it was like this is too, 'cause it was just like so much anxiety and stress, like when am I gonna run into him? When is he gonna, you know, 'cause we're playing in the halls, you know, like they just punch, whatever. - Was it like two for flinching? - It was something like that. And if you flinched again, you get like another thing. I can't remember what it was, but I think he owed me, oh no, that's what it was.

I don't know. Anyways, whatever it was, there was this finer details that I'm kind of missing out. But the point is, like I said, yo, let's just get this over with. And then he was like, all right. And then he like, I turned my shoulder to him and then he went to hit me and he goes like that. And he was like, he's like, have a nice day. No way. Yeah. And I was like,

That was so cool. Like, that was so cool. I think that he respected the fact that I just, he knew that I was like scared. Yeah. I think he respected that I just went straight up to him and I was just like, let's just take care of this. And that was cool. And I'll never forget that. I think that that's...

Because you never know. That's the thing about bullies. It's like, I'm never going to be like, that person's ultimate asshole. Like an evil person. Yeah, they're not an evil person. They're, you know, whatever. It doesn't excuse their behavior in any way. But there is a reason why they're behaving that way. And I think, like, we underestimate. Sometimes bullies just want respect.

The only way they're getting respect is by being bullies. And so sometimes when you show that you can see them a little bit or you're like, hey, I saw you at a wood shop. That thing that you made is really dope. Yeah. They're like, what? They're like, there's more value to me than that. That'll do a lot to a bully. That's deep. Yeah. I think you're so right. And even as you're older—

If someone's rude at the grocery store to you, the cashier, it doesn't mean that they don't like you or you did something. But I sometimes take it that way. And I'm like, wait, what did I do to her? I know. My mother used to tell me, it's actually not about you. There's something in here that also showed you that that bully, that kid, the hardest hitter, has a heart. Totally. Has probably, to your point, something else going on.

100%. And I think like, I don't know, I try to keep that in mind. It's like, you know, like remember CDs, like when it came out with that skip-proof CD technology? Yes. And they would talk about like 30-second buffer, one-minute buffer, whatever. And it just means that it's preloaded the music in a buffer memory up to about a minute or whatever it is. And so if you hit the device and the

laser gets all screwed up and it doesn't know where the music is, it just immediately goes to the, it's playing off of the buffer. So the music continues and then the laser finds where it lines up. And then when the buffer runs out, it just meets back up with the continuation of the music. So you don't notice the skip. And it's like, that's how I think of like dealing with people in the world, like bullies and things like that. If someone does something, not even a bully, but just someone, like you're saying, give like not reacting in a way that you thought would be like, you're supposed to say hi or you're supposed to whatever.

If you have a little bit of a buffer, you can kind of stop before you immediately react and go, you know what? That's totally fine. It's like, hey, have a great day. And mean that, and they may not respond to it. But they'll hear it on some level. And you just walk away. And it's hard, but you know.

I don't know. But that was a lesson at a young age probably, right? Obviously one that you remember. Yeah, high school, yeah. Freshman year. I love though that you said that you could –

you knew your ability to either make a situation less tense with your humor or whatever. I think it feels like quite often it takes people a long time to get there and to realize that skill that you can take with you forever, and you obviously have, but at that young of an age to know that you can affect so much with that feeling.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a nice thing to know that you have options. That's all it is. You have options. You don't have to deal. You don't have to react to something exactly the same way every time. Exactly.