I AM NOT AN ATHLETE.I just want to make that statement so there’s no confusion. My father was a track star in his youth and he always hoped I’d take up running but unfortunately, I was awkward and very unsure of myself in that arena. Being a daddy’s girl however, I was a sports fan. I knew all of the rules of football and baseball and Dad’s teams (Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Dodgers) were my teams. But it is only as an adult that I’ve come to appreciate a very valuable lesson that is learned through participating in sports, and specifically in being a champion.
I think the NCAA tournament, aka March Madness, is a really fun time of year. When our kids were in middle/high school, we would make a copy of the brackets, cut them up in to individual team pieces and then draw each team and assign it to an individual. The drawings were always random except for the #1 and #2 seeds. These were dispersed evenly so each person received a #1 and a #2. Then we would anxiously await the outcome of each game, with me keeping color-coded score and in the end, the winner received bragging rights and money seldom changed hands. The tournament itself really lent excitement to our little pool because in any given year, a #10 seed could come in and knock someone’s precious #2 seed out of the tournament with a single Buzzer Beater!
Invariably you’ll hear sports analysts and experts dub a team “bracket buster” because where they really have no chance to win the entire tournament, quite often they steal the chances to go all the way for a favorite team. (Think Michigan State’s loss to Middle Tennessee!) And I love this about the tournament!! This is where the life lesson comes in – that little nobody team that may have never made it to the tournament suddenly is on the national stage and they make the most of it! They brought their “A” game to play against the big power house teams and they were not going down without a fight. Isn’t that an attitude we should carry with us on an everyday basis? That no matter how small or insignificant the task or interaction may seem we should give it our all? Every day. Every hour. Every minute. It’s a winner’s mentality.
To apply this to lessons for our children: yes, if you have a setback, maybe a bad semester or you didn’t make captain on the drill team, it’s not over, you can strive to do better next time. But how much more difficult is it to make up lost ground when if you give it your all, all the time, you place yourself ahead in the running?
Isn’t it funny the perspective that age brings? I sit here with my epiphany, ready to share it with my college freshman but did I think each course in school mattered enough to put forth my best effort? Ha. Not likely. But I can make it count now.
This week I am taking Tuesday off to spend some time in Round Rock with one of my little birds who is out of the nest, so pickups will be Wednesday and Thursday only. If you’d like to pick up Wednesday, I would greatly appreciate having your order by Monday noon. To order, send an email to menu@butterfieldgourmet.net. Thanks for reading along and I hope you all have a great week – get out and enjoy the sunshine!
Pickup Times for 4/4-8
Tuesday – No pickups
Wednesday – NW Hwy & Preston, 2:30 pm, 3pm, 3:30 pm
Forest & Preston, 4:30 pm
Thursday – NW Hwy & Preston, 2:30 pm, 3pm, 3:30 pm
Forest & Preston, 4:30 pm