Resilience and Strength - #2 of 2

The story continued - Part 2 of 2
A happy ending

This is what happened after the boys did not make the high school baseball teams. Even in the midst of huge disappointment and hurt on the night they were told they weren't selected, my youngest made the decision to look into Track and the oldest decided to try out for Volleyball. The youngest had been approached by the track coach even before bball tryouts so he went to see him at the end of the week and was given a warm welcome to the team. In fact, he had been pulled out of class to meet with the track coach some weeks earlier. The coach had told him that he had heard a lot of hype about him from kids who had run with him in middle school. When my son told him his times, the coach said he would probably be running Varsity in some events! Even though the season was already three weeks underway, the coach said they'd work with him to bring him up to speed.

My son then went to see the baseball coach to talk to him and find out why he hadn't made the team. He was told that they had "made a mistake" but that there was nothing they could do about it now. The coach encouraged my son to try out for the summer team. Needless to say I was very proud of my youngest for having the strength to talk to the baseball coach and also to seek out the track coach even after the team was already well underway for an opportunity to join the team. My son had his first meet last Friday and came in third in an event he ran with Sophomores. He told me they are video taping him to help him improve and his coaches remarked that it looks as though he has been running 10 years.

My oldest son had a few days off before the tryouts for volleyball even though he had never really played the sport - he went to one very brief summer camp (2 days) to learn the basic skills of the game when he was in middle school. After the Monday afternoon tryouts he told me that the kids in the group were extremely nice and all of them helped him (as well as the coaches) during his tryout. He said he loved playing but his knees were killing him and he hoped he made the team. The tryouts continued on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was just proud my son was giving this a shot - I didn't want to get my hopes up because he had never really played the sport.

On Wednesday he came home with a JV spot! The coaches told him that they had never had another kid try out who had demonstrated as much enthusiasm, worked as hard or listened to instruction better - they asked him if he could keep up the same level of intensity and when he said yes they told him he had made the team. They also said he was a natural athlete and this did a lot to help heal his bruised ego. At this point he is doing great in his practices and it looks like he may be starting in the first game next week.

I cannot relate how proud I am of my boys. They dealt with adversity and picked themselves right back up after dusting themselves off. I told both boys that I am looking to them for inspiration and strength. If they can do it so can I.

Today I am grateful:

1. That we are having unseasonably warm weather and it looks like Winter is finally gone.
2. That I am thinking less about Husband #2 and as a result have been really bearing down on getting the house cleaned out and cleared out so I can list it if that is what I decide by the start of April.
3. For my boys being able to demonstrate so much resilience and strength in the face of adversity.