My 12-year-old daughter (Claire) recently attended a fall sports awards ceremony to celebrate completion of her first year of cross-country running. As her dad, it has been a fun experience watching her putting in hard work and striving to improve each week.
Unfortunately, Claire takes after me when it comes to athletic prowess. She’s tall, gangly and kind of awkward like I was in seventh grade. When I was her age, I got turned onto skateboarding, and after investing hundreds of hours into the craft, I got pretty good at it. But before skateboarding, I had zero interest or natural ability in traditional sports.
I don’t know if running will be Claire’s skateboarding, but there was an undeniable fire lit under her these past couple of months as she strived each week to better her time. She completed her first two-mile race in just under 19 minutes. In each of the following races, she was determined to get better.
Getting better was not always a linear path for her. Some weeks she excelled. Some weeks she slipped backwards in her time. But she eventually achieved her personal record of 15:51. Compared to her peers, her time was middle of the pack, but I was exceedingly proud of the improvement she made.
Shaving three minutes of her time was an admirable feat. I was even more impressed by her desire to keep making progress. Her commitment to show up to practice every day after school was truly remarkable. Claire has never been very competitive or shown much interest in team sports. But watching her compete against herself and her drive for improvement, filled me with hope.
The worry train in my brain often jumps off the track…
Claire has tried her hand at several sports and different forms of art, and she hasn’t seemed to find an interest that has really ‘clicked’ for her. As her parent, I sometimes worry that I haven’t been assertive enough in pushing her into extra-curricular activities. The worry train in my brain often jumps off the track and I imagine her living in our basement in her 40’s as an aspiring YouTuber because I didn’t force her to continue on with piano lessons.
This season of cross-country gave me hope that she will find her thing. And when she finds her thing, she will work hard at it and push herself towards betterment. That is one of my main desires for her as a parent, to find something that she cares about deeply enough to compel her towards self-growth.
Youth is a journey of discovery, where some of us get lost along the way. I have taken many a meandering path to arrive at my current destination. I have to keep reminding myself that my job as a parent is to help build the kindling. I can’t ignite the fire of spiritual awakening, passion, selflessness or any other attribute that I want to see burning in my kids. I rest a little easier in this season though, having seen the spark that cross-country ignited in her.