It was the kid with the sunglasses that finally did it. My phone read 8:34 and 18% charge. The kid was in the hall with a handful of other middle school kids 11 hours into a day that could last up to fifteen. He was dancing through a storm of boredom, fatigue, ego, and testosterone. I could feel it coming off of him in waves. I could smell it on him–on all of them. But he was wearing sunglasses. Indoors.
My boys and I arrived at the meet near 8:30 AM. Many of the other teams had already been there an hour, experience teaching them to get there early enough to grab a good spot. We were filled with excitement and middle school pride. Most of that drained away by 8 PM.
The way a state wrestling meet goes is each weight group competes until all have competed round by round. This is a double elimination set up, with 67 teams. Needless to say this went on forever.
By the time the kid was wearing shades in the hallway it was long past the attention span of anyone. He was puffing out his chest and enjoying a moment of just being a dude. He was also enjoying being the center of the spotlight.
I was enjoying the entire thing less. Smelly boisterous boys are enough when there are three. This was more like 300, and I was not ready.