One of my high school athletes asked me what I do for fun with friends "my age" last year. (That phrase is always a jolt to hear, even though it is a nice reminder that I am, at least, a chronological step ahead of those who I'm directing). I told her to tell me what she thought I did. It went something like this: I have a specific bar/restaurant that all of my friends and I frequent where the servers know my order, and we basically go every single day after work. Then I change it up sometimes by having people over to my condominium with an array of fancy cheeses on a delicate platter. Every now and then we play an adult board-type game. (I'm assuming she meant CAH, but I can never be sure with teenage girls). I sat back after this glorified depiction of the adult female coach in her life and chuckled a little. I'm pretty sure my social life is an episode of Friends in her book. While not a far stretch from reality, I can't remember a time where I've had a plethora of gourmet cheese out on a platter, and I order something different just about every time I go out to eat. The truth is. My life revolves around that teenage girl and her teammates/classmates. When I think back to my high school experience, I cringe a lot, laugh a fair amount, and shrug off what I can. It was high school. I never thought I would re-live it. Given the second chance with a new set of eyes and responsibility, however, has completely evolved who I am as a person.
What I do in my free time IS, in some ways, like Chandler, Rachel, and the gang. I do hang out with my friends. Sometimes I go to bars or restaurants, and sometimes I go to BBQs or fundraisers. It's all a pretty standard adult life. I eat meals at my friends houses, watch The Bachelor, and go to workout class. I text while I'm at work, call my mom everyday (yes, every.day.), and I play with dogs. The only difference is that I have this hypocritical fear complex that has lived inside me for 5+ years. That's right. I'm talking about practicing what you preach.
When I was in high school, two of my friends went to a Justin Timberlake concert. They saw our Spanish teacher and the dance coach at the concert. Hammered. We didn't have facebook back then...even texting wasn't really big. But nonetheless, word traveled fast. I remember sitting in Spanish class and smirking at my teacher. She was young, beautiful, and single - getting the depiction of her wasted at a JT concert secured what I had envisioned adult life to be like. Wild and fun. There was nothing wrong with either of these two young women. They were amazing teachers and coaches, and they were responsible and put together. They had every right to concert-go and boogy down to the man that IS Justin Timberlake while liquidated and lucid. They could have been celebrating a 30th birthday for all I know. I don't judge them. But I also have never forgotten that moment of gossip and shock-awe. You work with kids and you are immediately subject to being seen at ANY moment during your social outings.
When I was in high school, two of my friends went to a Justin Timberlake concert. They saw our Spanish teacher and the dance coach at the concert. Hammered. We didn't have facebook back then...even texting wasn't really big. But nonetheless, word traveled fast. I remember sitting in Spanish class and smirking at my teacher. She was young, beautiful, and single - getting the depiction of her wasted at a JT concert secured what I had envisioned adult life to be like. Wild and fun. There was nothing wrong with either of these two young women. They were amazing teachers and coaches, and they were responsible and put together. They had every right to concert-go and boogy down to the man that IS Justin Timberlake while liquidated and lucid. They could have been celebrating a 30th birthday for all I know. I don't judge them. But I also have never forgotten that moment of gossip and shock-awe. You work with kids and you are immediately subject to being seen at ANY moment during your social outings.
So aside from the standard, setagoodexample model, working with teenage girls has given me that mighty reproach that I had not discovered until it was almost forced upon me. In so many ways, I am still a tween at heart. (Just look at my television choices). I am not above gossip (I mean some is hard to resist), sometimes I eat popcorn for dinner, and my best friend and I have a different "voice" for every dog that we meet. I'm goofy, I have insecurities, and I go through heartbreak and lifeisnotfair moments just the same. I just have my own place and no longer get sack lunches packed by my mother each day with a napkin note hidden at the bottom (if your mom didn't/doesn't pack your lunch, you have missed out on one of the many acceptable spoiled entities of being a child). I do, however, envy the girls that I work with. They are leaps and bounds ahead of who I was in high school. I'm laying the cheese on thick, but they really do teach me a lot about...well, everything. There is one girl, in particular, that I have been thinking about with my latest ACL take-down. She made the varsity squad her freshman year, only to never step field on the stadium because she tore her ACL just weeks into pre-season. She made a full recovery and comeback, and then did the EXACT same thing during the same week to her OTHER ACL her Sophomore year. She rode the pine for TWO YEARS before ever even making the line-up. And then she blew me away. She is a superb soccer player, yes, but honestly - all of the Varsity players are - they're on the Varsity squad. She played without fear! The girl hadn't played soccer competitively in TWO years because of her TWO surgeries, yet she owned her field space. I praised her, of course, but I honestly was in dead shock. She made a comeback that I'm not sure the 16 year old or 27 year old me could or would be capable of facing.
I put her on the field to play to the level I expect all my athletes to play to - their best. If that's what I expect for them, can I really back down from my own pre- and post-op wrangling of success? Sure, I may be a little bit older, a little bit past my glorified "athlete" years, but damnit, what kind of role model am I if I set the bar low for myself?! It might be scary to grab my wii controller and knock out some dance moves, but that doesn't mean I won't be tearing it up a year from now. Football (and futbal), do not need to be permanent scare tactics in my young adult years. If I'm going to tell my girls to come back strong, it's only fair that I set myself up to do the same. I thought about that last night when I went to the gym. My surgeon has encouraged me to bike (pain-free) up until surgery. I've been pedaling ABOUT how quickly and ferociously you might imagine your great-grandmother going. Yesterday, I stepped up my game. I taught spin through my college years, and I jumped on that bike last night, and I went no where fast. Check yourselves, blog readers, I made progress in the fear department. I was spinning.
I put her on the field to play to the level I expect all my athletes to play to - their best. If that's what I expect for them, can I really back down from my own pre- and post-op wrangling of success? Sure, I may be a little bit older, a little bit past my glorified "athlete" years, but damnit, what kind of role model am I if I set the bar low for myself?! It might be scary to grab my wii controller and knock out some dance moves, but that doesn't mean I won't be tearing it up a year from now. Football (and futbal), do not need to be permanent scare tactics in my young adult years. If I'm going to tell my girls to come back strong, it's only fair that I set myself up to do the same. I thought about that last night when I went to the gym. My surgeon has encouraged me to bike (pain-free) up until surgery. I've been pedaling ABOUT how quickly and ferociously you might imagine your great-grandmother going. Yesterday, I stepped up my game. I taught spin through my college years, and I jumped on that bike last night, and I went no where fast. Check yourselves, blog readers, I made progress in the fear department. I was spinning.