Soccer story

She's got her cool little shin guards and socks.

She's got the t-shirt.

She's great at handling the ball.

And up until her first game, Makenzie was loving soccer.

Last Thursday was her second night, and after nearly an hour of simple drills with lots of down time, they pulled out some little jerseys to let the kids scrimmage for the last 10 minutes.

I knew she was disappointed when she was on the team that didn't get the purple jerseys.

And I knew she was confused when all the instruction she got, this being the first time she has ever played soccer, was "okay, go!"

She looked at us like, "what do I do??"

So, Justin ran over to explain the concept to her: the kids without the purple are on your team, you guys are gonna kick it in that goal, etc.

Well, she took one look at all the kids running after the ball and she shut down.

In our great parental wisdom, we yelled, "Go get it Kenz! Run! Go!"

And then the tears came.

She came crying to the sidelines.

So, then came all the great lines, which progressively got more inspiring:

"Why are you crying?? Just go play!"

"It's okay, Kenz, you can do it, just run after it!"

"Makenzie, nobody else knows how either, just try!"

"Okay, stop crying."

"Get out there and go kick the ball. Now."

"Maybe we should give Jarom your shirt and socks, he wants to play."

(Jarom: "yeah!")

"Ok, you're not coming back next week if you don't get out there and try."

At that, she made one short attempt, but quickly came back crying.

All was futile.

It was "too hard."

We ended up coming home and having a long talk about how it's okay to fail, it's okay to miss, it's okay if she couldn't get the ball at all, but it's not okay to quit.

I think she got it, but man... we obviously weren't prepared for her to react like that.

We just thought she would tear after that ball and have a great time.

Well, after many pep talks over the weekend, Makenzie had it pretty well drilled in her brain that you don't quit, you just have fun and run after the ball.

So last night she went out fully prepared to try.
She didn't cry, but I may have overemphasized the point that it's okay if you can't get the ball, because she went out of her way to stay at least a few feet behind the action at all times. But she was smiling and running back and forth with the kids and having a grand ole time.

She did play goalie and blocked a couple of shots and jumped up and down for joy at her success.

So, we may have had a rocky start, and she may still be intimidated by the game, but I've never been more proud than to see her overcome her fears and get out there and try.