A is For Achievement
August 22, 2024
A is For Achievement
There’s a young woman I know who started gymnastics classes just for fun at nine years old. It was fun, she made friends, but it was also her first long-term physical activity. Government lockdowns happened and she was sure they wouldn’t allow any gyms to reopen anytime soon so she buried herself in books and stopped training for her goal of team. (One big sister trained like mad and made team on reopening.) She gained four inches and when the government allowed the gyms to reopen, she had lost a lot of strength, flexibility, and therefore skills. At this point, her body began to change periodically, gaining chunks of height and weight in crazy bursts and shifting her center of balance from child shape to woman shape over the next three years. Every time her body did a big change, it got harder to keep the skills she had learned, and several times she went backwards and had to relearn skills she had previously mastered.
But she never gave up.
Year after year and challenge after challenge, she kept pushing. At first it was just enough to keep working out with her group. She rejoiced with her classmates as so many made the team or moved on to higher skill levels. Her little sister made the team, several of her friends made the team. She cheered for them at meets and encouraged them at practice. Time and life moved on as she grew.
Her goals began to lengthen in time. Last year started a serious focus that I have come to expect of my children around age 12 to 14. She became a seriously committed volunteer. She narrowed down her career choice aim and started to direct her scholastic path toward said chosen career. She started a part time job. She came up with a list of 5 and 10-year goals. Along with “take the PERT,” and “pass my learner’s permit test,” one list included, “make the competitive gymnastics team.”
She spent most of winter, spring, and summer working out harder and harder. We’d be getting up for work and she’d turned the area rug into a workout center, jamming away to music and focusing on core and arms. She would go running in the early morning before sunrise. She’d be bicycling in the evening. She was working on her strength, her flexibility, and she kept saying, “even if I don’t make it this third time, there’s still next year.”
Tryouts happened on Saturday.
I was working at the desk and telling other parents“you should get an email in a week.”
Literally before we left work that early afternoon – a coworker who was also telling other tryout parents the same thing smiled and chuckled as my child goes, “mom, did you get an email?”
Me: “tons, from Heather.”
My kid: *eye roll* “Mom!”
Me: “A week, ask me again on Friday.”
Sunday – I receive two text messages with puppy eye face emojis and “did you get an email?” and several in person questions – “Child, is it Friday?? I will not bug your coach. Patience.”
“Patience is a muscle that needs to be used to grow.”
“Patience is a virtue.”
“Fruit of the Spirit, Jaquline?”
*Lots of eye-rolls and “Mom!” exclamations or texts*
Monday – repeat of Sunday in my child’s communication with me.
Tuesday – repeat of Sunday and Monday in my child’s communication with me.
Tuesday early afternoon I am working (thus checking my emails all day) and when I move to the next email it isn’t work-related.
I forward it to Jaquline.
I call her.
Jaquline: *answers phone* “yes?”
Me: “did you get an email?”
Jaquline: *shriek, scream* “wait… is it a yes or a no?”
Me: “check your email.”
Jaquline: *tapping on her phone as she checks, obviously reads the first line* “MOM!!” *shrieks, screams, jumps so hard I can hear the floor creak through the phone* “Did Katie make it? Did…(proceeds in her super-excited-speed mode down a list of names asking if they made it to which I don’t know) make it?”
Me: “You’ll find out at practice, I only get the email for my child, not everyone else’s children.” (I love how her heart is already concerned about her classmates/teammates)
Jaquline: “I can’t start tonight, I have to work… when do I start?”
Me: *laughing at this point because she’s talking in her super-excited-fast mode* “Read the email. Let Christina know your schedule. I love you, I’ll see you later.”
I’m so excited for her because the story of “I give up versus I’m going to keep working” is now a story of how changing one’s attitude from focusing on what you can’t control to focusing on what you can control about reaching your goal has moved her from not making it to three years of tryouts, a year of focus, determination, and perseverance to reach a goal. I know she’s going to have a positive attitude and relish in this long-sought accomplishment.
Achievement. I love how sports give children the opportunity to achieve hard-won goals.
Jaquline will be 15 when she attends her first competition in Xcel Silver for WGV Gymnastics – and her determination and positive caring attitude will make her an encouraging teammate. I am so excited for what this year will bring her! 2024-2025 now adds “Competitive Team” to Jaquline’s plans right along with “Learner’s Permit” and “taking the PERT” – what a busy, exciting season for my growing young woman!
Thank you for reading!
Type at you next time!
~Nancy Tart
