S is in a lot of activities. She likes to be busy. She goes to Taekwondo, gymnastics, Girl Scouts, and soccer during the season. She adores soccer. LOVES it. She wants to play soccer in the Olympics.
Is she amazing at it? My answer is that she is eight years old. She is passionate about it. She has the potential to be great. Some of her teammates practice more and have better skills. She has some solid skills and is always up for learning more.
Since we signed up for Taekwondo, we are committed in that direction for another year or two. Luckily, she absolutely loves it. Adores it and does really well at it. She’s a pretty passionate girl, so she’s enthusiastic about a lot of things. We noticed that there were soccer try-outs over the weekend for our local soccer club that we have been involved in for years. The upside is that they don’t travel far and they are less expensive than some of the other ones. We asked S if she wanted to try out and, well, let’s just say my ears hurt. She was so excited.
We warned her that only nine or ten spots would be available and twenty plus girls would probably be signing up but that it would be a good experience.
The bottom line is that I would be perfectly happy if we didn’t make it. She could get another year in TWD down. No tournament weekends, no practicing three times a week, no crazy schedule (ours is already crazy enough).
But… we got there to the first tryout and, as some experienced parents already know, it’s really HARD to watch your child go out there and be judged. In the moment, I really WANTED her to be picked and be on the team. She wants to be on, I want her to be happy, and I want the coaches to see what I see. A girl who loves soccer and has the potential to be great at it with her attitude.
I think this is the first time that I have felt this way. S is such a wonderful, outgoing, happy child and there hasn’t been a lot of drama in her life. We keep on her for homework, for responsibilities, and other things that I feel like school and activities are easy for her. Easy is probably not the right word since we work really hard at this life to make sure it all falls together as it should, with practicing, homework, and studying for tests. She is very easy-going and while she can be a drama queen (as any child), she is flexible.
Anyway. Watching from the sidelines a field away… was very hard. I think the worst part was seeing her not run as fast as the other girls. She was in the back and after the practice, she acknowledged that she was slower. I mentioned that if she wanted to practice running before the next try-out, we could do that but she didn’t seem to fussed about it. The whole experience was very fun for her, she loved being there as she knew 90% of the girls trying out, and it was a fun day. So I’m happy for that. We will go to the second try-out in a few weeks and see what happens.
It will be a great experience for her either way. If she doesn’t get it, I feel like she will be disappointed for a few hours and bounce on to the next thing. For however long she will be disappointed, I just know it’s coming. If not this, then something else down the road. I just feel like I’m at that point where every parent reaches… my baby is growing up.
Bittersweet.
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