Written by Yosef Michael on November 10, 2023

When I was 14, I was in 8th grade at Russellville, Arkansas, middle school. I argued with my best friend Alvin, so I left the group. I then started hanging out with the kids who weren’t part of a group and began trying to meet new friends.

Josh S. was the school bully. He used to walk around looking for people without a group to pick on. Josh was huge for his age, and there were rumors that the high school football coaches were trying to recruit him to play after he graduated!

No one intelligent wanted to be confronted by Josh!

One day, I was telling my new friend that I have a YZ-100, which has a two-stroke engine and is very powerful! I told him about how I had almost got killed the first time I ever rode it (See experience 22. I upgraded to a Yamaha YZ-100 two-stroke. (February 14, 2023) in my first book, “It Has Been an Interesting Life.” If you want to read about it: https://yosefmichael.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/b01_it_has-been_mobile_np_mp-1.pdf.

I didn’t know it, but Josh stood behind me and heard my conversation. Josh Said, “You don’t have a motorcycle!” I replied, “Yes, I do!” He said, “I don’t believe you!” I said, “I’ll take Jeff to see it after school, and he can verify it tomorrow! Josh said, “Okay, but you better not lie!” and pointed his finger at Jeff threateningly.

The next day, Josh approached us, and Jeff confirmed that he had both seen and rode it himself, but Josh said, “I still don’t believe you,” and he pushed me, so I pushed him back! He got mad and pushed me against the school planter wall. I had been standing about two or three feet from it. The planter wall was about my waist height and constructed by large rocks. I put my right foot on the planter, thrust off it with my leg, and forced Josh backward about three or four feet, although he was still pushing me.

My Civics teacher was on patrol and saw me pushing Josh backward. Josh saw her first, stopped being aggressive, smiled, and walked toward her as she approached us. He gave him a flimsy excuse and said, “We are just acting.” She smiled and said, “I thought you guys were going to fight!” she asked me, “Is everything alright?” Josh looked at me with a threatening look on his face. I told her, “Yes, we were acting.”

A few days later, I was sitting in that teacher’s Civics class when an announcement came over the school’s PA system, calling me by name to the principal’s office. She looked at me and gave me directions to his office and a school hall pass so I could go without being stopped by teachers on patrol looking for students trying to avoid a class.

The principal said, “Josh told me that you and he are not getting along, and I should warn you that he is angry with you.” I was shocked that Josh had gone to the principal since he was the aggressor, not me!

The principal asked me why I started hanging out in a different area instead of with Alvin and the others. I told him, “Alvin and I had a falling out, so I went there to find new friends.” He said, “I suggest you work out your issue and return to being Alvin’s friend!” I disagreed politely, and he sent me back to class.

After the class ended, some students asked me what the principal wanted, and I foolishly told them the truth! Later that day, when Josh approached me, I asked him, “Why did you go to the principal?” He replied, “I did you a favor! You better return to your other friends and stop hanging out here!” I replied, “I’ll hang out wherever I want!” He said, “I’m warning you; you better stop hanging out here!” I rejected him again, and he left.

Josh and I were in the same PE class. A few days after I rejected his and the principal’s advice, the coaches called the whole class over to the wrestling mats during the last 20 minutes of our PE class and said, “For the remainder of time today, we are going to have a tag team wrestling match. They said, “Some of you go on that side of the mat, and others go on this side.”

Josh was about 5 feet 11 inches (181 cm) tall and about 215-220 pounds (100 kg). I was about 5 feet 5 inches (165 cm) and about 145 pounds (66 kg).

In American schools and Olympic wrestling, you are not allowed to punch or kick despite what you see on TV if you watch WWF! I decided to wait for Josh to choose a side and go on to the same side, and I did that.

I watched the matches and waited for the bell to ring so I could go shower, change, and eat lunch. After about 15 minutes of tag team wrestling, the two guys on the mat fell in front of me, and the guy from our side reached his hand out to me; he wanted to get out and me to take over. I didn’t want to go in, but I would look like a coward if I didn’t, so I tagged his hand and rushed the opponent.

I saw Josh walk over to the other side of the mat. I tried to pin the opponent as quickly as possible to avoid Josh tagging in, but failed! The guy managed to keep one of his shoulders off the mat. I foolishly tired myself out trying to pin him. That is when Josh ran up to where we were and reached out to the guy and threatened him, “You better tag me in, or I am going to kick your ass after school!”

I foolishly tried to keep my opponent too far away for him to tag Josh. The guy struggled and crawled toward Josh to tag him in. Josh rushed in as I stood up, and he grabbed me, picked me over his head, and threw me down hard on the mat. He stood next to me while I was still lying on my back and yelled, “I dare you to get up!”

I was tired, so I rested for about a few seconds and got up. Josh again grabbed me, picked me up over his head, and threw me down on the mat hard. He stared at me and said, “I told you I would beat you!” I rested for a few seconds and got up.

To make a long story short, every time I got up, he picked me up over his head and threw me down hard on the mat. He repeated that so many times I lost track of the count. Each time I got up, he would get angrier and throw me harder to the mat.

He had no intention of pinning me; he wanted me to quit, but I couldn’t. This violated one of my dad’s rules: Never give up in a fight unless it’s clear that you are the winner, someone breaks up the battle, or it’s a draw, which means you both agree to stop!

Because of the rules in wrestling and Josh’s size and strength, I had planned to keep resting on the mat for about 10 seconds and slowly getting up to kill as much time as possible, hoping the bell would ring or until the coaches saw the futility and stopped the match. However, Josh was getting tired and breathing hard, so the next time he threw me to the mat, he said, “This time, you better not get up if you know what’s good for you!”

I was lying on the mat with everyone looking at me and wondering what I would do. I thought, “I wish he hadn’t said that; now I have to get up before the bell if it were to ring! Otherwise, everyone will think I quit, or there will be an unresolved dispute about whether I was trying to get up before the bell!”

This time, Josh was furious. When he saw me getting up, he didn’t wait for me to stand; instead, he reached down and grabbed me as I lifted my back from the mat like I was doing an American sit-up. That was his mistake because he didn’t hold both of my arms! I was able to wrap my right arm around his neck and choke him!

He turned hard to the right and back to his left, trying to get me off him, but his motion caused me to get completely entirely behind him with my arm still around his neck, choking him. He let go of my left arm and tried pulling my right arm off his neck with both his hands. With my left hand now free, I grabbed my right wrist to lock my arm! Plus, my weight on his back and my leaning backward, pulling hard, trying to choke him harder caused him to bend backward, and now, I was standing behind him, holding on to his neck with my right arm still wrapped around it, and he couldn’t break free. The coaches blew the whistle and made me let go of him!