What a time in Toronto sports
The Leafs just drafted McKenna
The Raptors just traded for Kawhi
The Blue Jays
The World Cup is in town and Canada is in the Round of 16 for the first time ever
samay raina’s still alive is actually one of his finest shows. just observe him throughout that show, he’s funny, vulnerable, sobbing, crying, laughing, trolling, acting & holding up all at the same time but none of it feels forced, none of it feels like he’s trying to impress you or anyone in that hall.
it feels like he’s trying to not lie or filter himself for once. he could’ve beeped the abusive words but he didn’t cause that’s his habit.
he’s just addressing his insecurities in front of the world, not in a polished, inspirational way, but in a messy, raw, inconsistent & in a bit uncomfortable way. he’s letting all his wounds stay open, fully aware of the consequences, fully aware that once you say these things publicly, you don’t get to take them back.
and still, he says them.
there’s a constant undercurrent in the show, how every famous personality on internet are just playing a character, including him just to fill their bank balance and instead of pretending he’s above it or different than them, he admits he’s part of the same system.
that honesty is what separates this from any other show or any other comedian.
the bullying story doesn’t feel like a “look how far i’ve come” arc. it feels like something that never really left him. like parts of him are still stuck there, still reacting, still shaping how he behaves.
same with his childhood. he’s not narrating it for sympathy, he’s just acknowledging that whatever you carry as a kid doesn’t disappear, it just learns how to sit quietly inside you. i feel majority relate with him.
the kashmiri pandit part is handled without drama or any sort of over explanation or emotional manipulation. he just presented a blunt reality that people didn’t leave, they fled. it wasn’t bravery, it was survival & sometimes survival is the only story.
and then the bit about men, it’s not framed like a lecture about parenting. just the reality that most men aren’t emotionless, they’re just emotionally underdeveloped. they don’t know how to process things, so they either joke about it or suppress it until it shows up in other ways. he doesn’t offer solutions or doesn’t pretend to understand it fully. he just shows it first hand based on his experience in that phase.
the pauses, the cuts, the tears, the long breaths, the anxious expressions they don’t feel like performance to me. they feel like moments where he’s actually catching up with what he just admitted and what he had gone through during that controversy that’s why it feels different.
this isn’t him trying to sound cool.
this isn’t him doing the “i don’t care” act.
this is him dropping that act completely.
and once you’ve publicly admitted what you’ve been through, without filters, without trying to look strong, without trying to wrap it up nicely no one in this whole world can really take you down because there’s nothing left to expose.
no image left to protect or no insecurity left to weaponise because you’ve already done it yourself.
and that’s what still alive really is
not a comeback
not a peak performance
not even just a stand-up special
it’s him accepting that he’s not healed, not fixed, not figured out…
just still alive.
🥹🇪🇸 A 22.5 year-old Spaniard, ranked world No. 1, entering their first Australian Open final after a 5+ hour semi-final?
History repeating itself, 17 years later.
Parallels ✨
The time has come, I am retiring from tennis. This is a moment you know will come one day, but somehow you never feel ready for it. This is as ready as I will ever be. Tennis has been my love and obsession for most of my life.
I have been the luckiest person to get to live out and fulfill my dreams. I got to show up every day and focus on just getting better, seeing where that will take me, and playing a game I was introduced to at 8 years old by complete luck. Somehow, this became my entire obsession and childhood, and then became my profession and life.
I am thankful for the incredible fans I got to compete and practice in front of all over the world. They got to see me shining at my brightest and managing the hardest of moments on the court. They got to see me grow up. Thank you to each and every one who stopped, even for a moment, to watch and support me.
Thank you to my coaches and team, who took time away from their families and homes to be on the road with me as I pursue my dream and goals. I am grateful for your guidance and teachings.
Thank you to the ATP tour, the ITF, and all the Grand Slams. I dreamt of playing at your great tournaments, and I got to have those amazing experiences surrounded by great people, trying their best for the beautiful game of tennis.
Thank you to all my colleagues and opponents. I looked up to you growing up, I looked up to you throughout my career, and I will continue to look up to you as a fan. I became the best player I could be, I am a better person, and I learned a lot of life’s most important lessons thanks to the challenges of competing with you all week in and week out for more than 2 decades.
Thank you to Canada. My family and I came over more than 30 years ago. Thanks to you, I pursued tennis, thanks to you, it changed my family's life, and I enjoyed every moment of the opportunity to represent you all around the world.
Mom, Dad, Jelena, and Momir, I am so incredibly thankful that you all put aside your lives at many moments for me to have a chance to chase a dream. It was only possible of becoming a reality thanks to you. None of this is possible without the consistent effort and emotional support you put into my dreams. As lucky as I am to have found tennis, it pales in comparison to how lucky I am to have you as my parents, sister, and brother.
I hope to make my wife and son proud every day and I hope I can be the kind of family for them as mine was for me.
A big part of my tennis journey has been the incredible people I have been fortunate to meet all over the world. On many occasions, they have been wonderful mentors who have given me the time and guidance to figure out the rest of my life. I am thankful to them for making the burden of many of my life’s most important questions a little easier. Their care and time have made this process much clearer and inspiring.
What’s next? I won’t be slowing down. There is so much more life to live, and I am as motivated and hungry as I was in 2011, when I broke through on tour. I will put the same effort and intensity into the next thing. If I can pursue the same excellence as I did with my tennis, just trying to be better every day, and let’s see where it takes me.
Something that goes under the radar about the demise of Manchester United is how much we miss Paul Pogba in our midfield.
He’d essentially do the role of 2 players in that position. The driving force in the ability to play progressive football, the skill to create something out of nothing.
This perception that he performed every 1 in 5 games couldn’t be further from the truth.
His good games were so regular and never praised, while his poor games were amplified 10x by the media.
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