Listen Now: The Sage Steele Show | Reggie Watts

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, like, it was too late for him to hit me back because the bell rang or whatever before he was supposed to.

And so we, like, left, and he's like, I owe you.

And I was like, fuck.

And so I was trying everything to avoid him, you know, for, like, 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. And- It was like weighing on you.
Yeah. I was like, this is too, because it was just like so much anxiety and stress.
Like, when am I going to run into him? When is he going to, you know? Because 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. It was like, 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 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 I turned my shoulder to him.
And then he went to hit me and he goes, like that. And he was like, have a nice day.
No way. Yeah.
And I was like, that was so cool. 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. An evil person.
Yeah. They're not, they're not an evil person.
They're, 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 like, you're like, Hey, I saw you at woodshop that a 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 rooted the grocery store to you, the cashier, it doesn't mean that they don't like you or you did something. Totally.
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.
A hundred percent. And I think like, I don't know, I try to keep that in mind.
I try to, it's like, it's like, you know, like remember CDs, like they were, when it came out with that skip proof CD technology 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, in a memory, up to about a minute or whatever it is.
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.
Then when the buffer runs out, it just meets back up with the continuation of the music. So you don't notice the skip.
That's how I think of 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, 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 like mean that, and they may not respond to it. I mean that, 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's, 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.

Right?

So.