Cheerleader

“Keep it moving son! Keep it moving son! Keep those arms moving!” That was me yelling till I’m darn near hoarse. My youngest son, participating in his first high school championship track meet, ran the 300m hurdles. Was it his best race? No. Was it a perfect race? No. In fact, it was a race he thought he could never do. Let me explain.

Conversations in the car, dinner table, and anywhere that had humidity invited conversations about this dreaded race. It was a myriad of emotions crawling all over the house from ‘Why am I running this race?’ to ‘I’m not going to win’ to even ‘I am not good at this race!’ So much frustration: not just from my son, but from me as well. I was thinking that he could run it. Would he win it? Don’t know. Could anything happen? Yup! Did the unexpected happen? Well…

My wife always told me that her mom consistently said that the word ‘can’t’ is not in the dictionary. I didn’t have such a profound statement, but I never want my sons to doubt what they can do if they put a little faith to the challenge. However, if they do or don’t I need for the t know that I am 100% percent behind them. Besides, doesn’t everyone need someone who believes in them even when they don’t?

I can always remember my dad being on the sidelines of my youth soccer games at the South DeKalb YMCA or in the stands at Panthersville and Memorial Stadiums in DeKalb County, Georgia rooting me and the Lithonia High School varsity soccer team on. In fact, his voice was so loud , I could identify where he was sitting (yelling) in the stands. I never doubted his complete presence. And to the best of my ability, my sons won’t lack my presence either.

After race…son and proud papa

By the way, click on the link to see what really happened in the race. This cheerleading dad has No Off Season…and probably no voice after this race.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ThBORon66sdrycf-hek8mvN9Ywsbvx9i/view?usp=sharing