My friend can swim 100 laps.
My friend, like many of my friends, is amazing. She is witty and stylish; she is smart and curious; she is wise and passionate and clever, and oh yeah-- she's 13.
And my friend can swim 100 laps.
In water.
This is what I hear-- second-hand-- and I believe it to be true. It might be a slight exaggeration. Maybe it's 75 laps; maybe it's 35. Here's my point: SHE'S 13 FRICKIN' YEARS OLD and she can SWIM MANY, MANY LAPS.
All I keep thinking about is where I was at 13. And where I'm at, now, at 36. Years and years and worlds apart. I have reinvented myself dozens of times over, and probably will continue to do so well into my sedentary years. (I have a sense that I will be the only octogenarian in my peer group with screaming pink hair.)
My point: You can be anything you want, at anytime, if you decide that's what you want to be. But it takes courage and committment to be that kind of an athlete. And she does it. AND she's 13.
Think about teenagers. Anxiety. Angst. Hormones. Body changes, peers wigging out, parents going from cool to geeky and back again inside of 20 seconds. It's a strange, heady world, one that is judged constantly and hypercritically by those on the inside AND outside tracks. Rules for existence can change on a minute by minute basis and trying to remain even-keel in such a world takes an amazing amount of emotional agility.
As adults, how do you explain that? How do you explain--earnestly-- that we get it, that some of us remember that world?
Anybody can be angst ridden. Anybody can have said they wanted to maybe one day at some point have tried to swim. Anybody can watch a group of people and have things to say about that group, be critical, foist opinions upon the world. Anybody can go out for the swim team and hey-- maybe even everybody can make it.
As an adult, I may forget many things about the life I lived at 13, especially EXACTLY what it was like to live in the trenches of teen-life.
But I can tell you one thing for certain, something I know in my bones to be true, cash in the bank: Not just anybody can swim 100 laps. Or 75. Or even 35. And at some point, this amazing friend of mine, she will swim more than that, and it will be just part of her daily routine.
How awesome is THAT?
And my friend can swim 100 laps.
In water.
This is what I hear-- second-hand-- and I believe it to be true. It might be a slight exaggeration. Maybe it's 75 laps; maybe it's 35. Here's my point: SHE'S 13 FRICKIN' YEARS OLD and she can SWIM MANY, MANY LAPS.
All I keep thinking about is where I was at 13. And where I'm at, now, at 36. Years and years and worlds apart. I have reinvented myself dozens of times over, and probably will continue to do so well into my sedentary years. (I have a sense that I will be the only octogenarian in my peer group with screaming pink hair.)
My point: You can be anything you want, at anytime, if you decide that's what you want to be. But it takes courage and committment to be that kind of an athlete. And she does it. AND she's 13.
Think about teenagers. Anxiety. Angst. Hormones. Body changes, peers wigging out, parents going from cool to geeky and back again inside of 20 seconds. It's a strange, heady world, one that is judged constantly and hypercritically by those on the inside AND outside tracks. Rules for existence can change on a minute by minute basis and trying to remain even-keel in such a world takes an amazing amount of emotional agility.
As adults, how do you explain that? How do you explain--earnestly-- that we get it, that some of us remember that world?
Anybody can be angst ridden. Anybody can have said they wanted to maybe one day at some point have tried to swim. Anybody can watch a group of people and have things to say about that group, be critical, foist opinions upon the world. Anybody can go out for the swim team and hey-- maybe even everybody can make it.
As an adult, I may forget many things about the life I lived at 13, especially EXACTLY what it was like to live in the trenches of teen-life.
But I can tell you one thing for certain, something I know in my bones to be true, cash in the bank: Not just anybody can swim 100 laps. Or 75. Or even 35. And at some point, this amazing friend of mine, she will swim more than that, and it will be just part of her daily routine.
How awesome is THAT?
posted by @traciAWESOME
1 Comments:
Okay... being that I can swim 20 on my best day, in a short pool, with the assistance of a lifeguard... I still say you are AWESOME!
Post a Comment
<< Home