Swimming across the lake

Swimming in the big lake.

Let’s compare youth and high school sports to swimming across a lake.

You must train to do this. You spend countless hours on your journey to prepare for this. You go to many swimming events and at these events you compare yourself to others. There are some pretty prestigious ponds to swim before you swim in the really big lake.

You tell your friends where you are doing to swim this weekend and even tell them about some pretty good swimmers that are swimming at this pond.

You start telling your friends about the big lake you are going to swim in. They don’t know much about lakes so you can basically make up any lake and say that the people at that lake who are in charge of the lake have invited you to swim and who will know the difference.

Now when the time comes and you have already swam three quarters across the last pond to get you to the big lake, and are close enough to the shore, you see this sign

You are not allowed to swim here. We did not invite you and this lake is for invited swimmers only. Holy crap, what do I do now?

Well since no one really knows that you were told you can’t swim at this prestigious lake, why not make some  stuff up. You were hurt, you didn’t like the coach, and you had other offers, anything but the truth, that you simply weren’t good enough.

So what do you do for the rest of the season? Do you really believe that you are going to out and give your best? Or do you get frustrated and disrupt?

 Back in my day we didn’t have that. We played for fun and if something happened it happened. We played at one level and if were good enough, lucky enough, and healthy enough, were invited to play at the next level. We dreamed when we were kids, but really, we just kept playing. And when that lest game in high school came, it was no big deal

I was with a young man who said he was going to get a full ride to college. He told me the school; I told him I could check on it. He said why I would do that. Why was I ruining his parade? I said because it was a lie that was effecting other kids.

I asked why would you make something like that up? Why would your parents?

He had no answer.