I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve looked back on a
day and decided it could never be surpassed in its totality of awfulness. Life, being fair and just with her ups and
downs, finds ways to prove me wrong again and again….and again. Funny thing about Life, though – she seems to
revel in unpredictability more than punishment, proven yesterday (Saturday) as
she pieced together what was, as of Friday evening, sure to be this week’s
version of the worst day ever.
Daughters 1 and 2 are both volleyball players. When I was school-aged, volleyball season
came around once a year, in the fall, for a couple of months. At some point between those school days of
mine and these school days of now, Life decided one volleyball season wasn’t
dreadful enough for those of us who aren’t fans of the sport; now we have a
spring volleyball season, too! Wait,
disclaimer: I do like the sport, and can even enjoy watching two skilled teams
play each other. Watching unskilled
play? Nauseating. Back to Saturday…
Daughter 2 had a tournament with her 6th grade
team. Her mom coaches Daughter 1’s team
and has been at volleyball tournaments every weekend for a month; to give Mom a
weekend off I agreed to be the driver for Saturday’s tournament. All ingredients were in place for “worst day
ever” status – the weather was predicted to be beautiful as we sat inside, the tourney site was two hours
away so getting up early was a must, the tourney schedule had the potential to
last until 7:30 p.m., and did I mention I’d be watching little girls play bad
volleyball all day? Just for fun Life
took away all hopes of productivity and/or distraction by putting the tourney
at a school with password protected WiFi (which we discovered shortly after
arrival), meaning when I wasn’t watching my daughter play I had little choice
but to watch all the other daughters play.
Bad volleyball, in case you’d forgotten.
As I arrived back home – at 10:30 p.m.!!! – I reflected on the awful,
awful day and realized…..I couldn’t think of anything that was awful at all.
We had a beautiful morning drive, half of which was through
a piece of Minnesota neither of us had ever seen. We heard songs we loved and songs we hated
and even a few we agreed on. We visited
for stretches and rode in silence at times, either way enjoying the rare chance
to be just the two of us. Hutchinson,
our destination, was a beautiful city. We
ate lunch at a sub shop with outdoor seating which we took full advantage of
and had another great conversation between mouthfuls and drinks. To top off our day we stopped at our favorite
ice cream chain on the way home for the tastiest supper of the week.
The tourney itself was long but I will save my rant about
the utter ridiculousness of today’s youth sports for another time…and despite
sitting through 10 hours of bad volleyball I came away feeling extremely
thankful I had the opportunity to be there.
My daughter’s team played better and better with every game, their coach
did a wonderful job of putting team play and individual playing time ahead of
winning, and the atmosphere surrounding the tourney was much more positive than
I expected - respectful coaches, cheering fans, and dozens of girls having a
really good time. The best part of the
whole thing? The smile on Daughter’s
face when she stood tall and delivered a serving streak to seal a win and her
goal of bringing home a medal. Throughout
the day we talked between games about leadership and grasping the moment and
intensity and working with a team and what it takes to reach goals - the sort
of stuff that parents and sports are supposed to teach kids. The smile on her face was for the win – the
look in her eye was the realization of new growth as a player and person. A very proud moment for both of us.
Daughter 2 wasn’t alone in learning Life lessons on a long
Saturday. Shame on me for judging a day
with my little girl as a punishment or potentially awful. Shame on me, and perhaps many of us, for
doing the same thing too often – writing off a day before we even live it. Bad days are as inevitable as good days, but
who are we to judge which is which before the sun comes up? And even if we do hold judgment until
darkness falls maybe we can find some diamonds and pearls sprinkled amongst the
happenings of even the most awful of days.
If joy can be found nestled inside 10 hours of bad volleyball it can be
found anywhere.
Life, you sly lady, thank you for saving the “worst” day of the week for my daughter
and I. I can’t wait to have another
one. But would it kill you to send some
rain the day of the tourney instead
of the day after next time?
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