Let me start by putting it out there that yours truly has NEVER played lacrosse either in the rain or on a bright sunny day.
I wasn’t much into sports as a kid, and now I prefer to get my fitness fix through yoga, riding the Peloton, and walks and jogs on the beach.
The lacrosse player we’re talking about here is my older daughter.
She’s ten and this is her first year on her school team.
We speak a lot in my house about the importance of commitment, meaning if you agree to do something, you show up and do it as well as you can.
In the Shaw household, excuses are frowned upon.
The girls understand this and frequently see this concept in action as I juggle my schedule and manipulate it like it’s rubber, always intending to follow through with what I said I would do.
So when game day dawned cold and rainy and the forecast was for more of the same throughout the day, my daughter knew that if the game was on, she’d be on the field too.
The only person who had a tiny question mark in their mind was me.
Was it worth it to get a cold?
Could this lead to time out of school?
But then I remembered what I drilled into both my girls and which I firmly believe:
“you show up because it’s your job to do so and you made a commitment to do your best.”
And so off we went.
We got wet and cold and when we got home rushed into dry comfy clothes, and while I can’t say it was a ton of fun, there was a lesson learned
Please don’t get this wrong. I’m not a zealot and if there was a good chance there’ d be a serious repercussion stemming from the game, we would have examined the options carefully, because along with commitment is the need to make certain you have your priorities straight.
That will be a topic for another blog but for now “being a committed and good team player” was reinforced in spades.
PS they won.