There are 17 windows open on my web explorer as I type this blog. Call it research. I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to dive into the world of professional sports lately. My mind has been cast back into the mess of the youth leagues where every parent thinks their kid has a shot to be the next big thing. Maybe your kid is that big thing–where you are. I experience that on a daily basis and find it less flattering and more disappointing each day. It is the same metric I use to discuss a child’s success in school. Of course you have straight A’s in 1-8th grade.
It hasn’t gotten real.
There is the rub: It hasn’t gotten real. I feel like the kids who recognize that are the ones who have the greatest chance of success–in all things–down the road. Last night I watched a trash talking argument go down between my mid kid and several members of the football team he used to play for. He let them know that he thought he was a better athlete and his team was a better team than theirs. Not a necessary or even sensible comparison. They play in the unweighted Alliance league at the 12U level. We play weighted Mitey-Mite (7-9). Not the same thing. Still he made a brief yet poignant comment that proved he is my kid. He said, ‘You guys were champions in a chump league, but when you went against kids your own size you got smacked.’
True story. Now if only he would apply such logic to himself. If only the kids in the argument did not exercise selective memory. In other words, they acted as though that horrible, terrible, not good, very bad season didn’t even happen. Maybe that’s how the universe works now. If you were displeased by a happening then it did not happen (see: Sandy Hook)