The force is strong with this one

Not too long after my last post my old daughter made a decision about playing sports. She was no longer going to play volleyball; instead she would:

RUN!

The same week that she made this revelation she had been running a mile in our subdivision. One day she came into the house, huffing and puffing from a hot run and told me that she was changing her mind about volleyball. She told me that running was hard and for the entire mile she felt like she was going to die. But once the run was over she felt great and for a moment thought that she would be able to do this more often. After I congratulated her on her revelation I laughed and said, "That feeling never goes away." 

On so many occasions I practically begged my daughter to come out with me on a run. When she started training for volleyball and asked me to help her run for endurance I secretly thought that this would be the gateway to becoming a runner. I figured that if she would just keep doing it that she would learn to love it. 

After one of our runs I asked if she would mind me looking at her form. There were some things that she had been complaining about and I thought her form might be causing some of these issues. But after seeing her glide across the pavement with such ease and effortlessness I automatically assumed that her issues were simply due to being a new runner. Her form was great, so great in fact that it brought a slight tear to my eye. Oh if she could only tap into this amazing potential. She could be an elite runner!

In a split second I noticed that I was starting to do that thing. The thing that so many other parents do when they notice a great source of untapped potential in their child; I was projecting. So I took a step back and stopped pressing the matter. I had forgotten how hard running was in those early stages and though I still have my bad days and crappy runs, my consistency has managed to override my frustrations. If she wanted to run it should be from her own decision, her own idea rather than a push from me. I mean, that's how she decided to play volleyball. The decision was all hers and I was so proud of that.

So when she approached me in the kitchen with a half-smile across her face, breathing deeply with sweat dripping from her face and told me that she wanted to run, how could I not be excited?! I had brought her into the fold and couldn't wait to lace up our shoes together and hit the pavement.