Ladies,
It's funny how life circles about, bringing all the seemingly loose and unrelated strands of our existence together to form the tapestries that are "us". If you will, allow me to delve into that for a few minutes. In my weird way I will eventually make a point (I hope).
I've told you before I came up in a large family. To be precise, I had four brothers and three sisters, some step-sisters, blah, blah, blah. The precise details are too convoluted to flesh out completely, and to be honest aren't particularly germane to the topic. I will say in addition to my brothers and sisters I was raised with an aunt and two uncles that were close in age. If you are counting, that's eleven kids.
It was the 60's, we were poor, and for us it was in every sense of the word a "dog-eat-dog world". There wasn't a lot of food, and what little possessions we had were shared amongst us all. Not always evenly, I might add.
That's right. When you are raised in a family like that, competition is a daily fact of life. You had to fight for food. You had to fight for possessions. You had to fight for personal space. Life was a fight.
Flashing forward to the present, I recently assigned a research/essay to my careers class. Topic: "Nature vs. Nurture". I told them both influenced their lives, but I wanted them to tell me which had more. Of course there is no answer... strong examples can be given to support either side. It's an individual issue with no right or wrong.
Here's the thing... no matter which side you choose, embedded in your answer is an "out" for anything you do wrong. I mean, if you are a product of your environment (Nurture) it's not your fault if you do anything wrong. It's how you were raised. On the other hand, if it's your genetic disposition (Nature) nothing can be your fault because that is how you are made.
Where I was trying to take them, and this may have been way over their heads, is that we struggle with outside influences all the time. We also struggle with the internal ones. We fight against our environment and our own natures, but the truth of the matter is we absolutely have a choice, always, to be our best. No excuses!
Now in my case, I can't tell you for sure if it is my nature to fight, or if that's how I was raised. It's probably a bit of both. What I can tell you is there is a switch in me, and once it is thrown, look out! I don't mean that necessarily as a scary psychopath kind of thing... it's more like I dig in my heels and there is nothing that will alter the path I have set.
When I was younger I tried so hard to avoid conflict with my siblings. This was of course impossible, given our situation, but I always tried. When push came to the inevitable shove, and the first punch landed on my face, all the pacifism was gone. Now someone was going to pay. No matter what else happened, someone was going to pay. The pain I had feared didn't matter. Losing didn't matter. Someone was going to pay.
It surprises me how often that quality has surfaced in my competitive life. I've headed into competitions fearful of things out of my control, stressing about the smallest details. In the early days that tightness would prevent me from reaching higher levels of success. What I learned as I moved on was this: once the first blow has landed and the competition is in swing, all of my fire comes forth and now someone is going to pay. I can keep my head, I can think my way through it, but someone is going to pay. It might be that unknown person in front of me, or the one after that, but someone is going to pay. This turns out to be the healthiest possible channel for how I am. I have taken a potential negative quality and turned it into a positive.
I have to believe we all have that switch - we just have different triggers. If you can find yours, find that one thing that pushes everything else out of your head so you can focus on giving everything you have, then you become great. Some need personal accomplishment, some need something bigger than themselves, a selfless act, and I can't tell you what yours will be. I can tell you you need to find it.
I will offer you something to shoot for tomorrow. Of course the challenge pales in comparison to such weighty psychological debates as "Nature vs. Nurture", but who knows, it might just be the carrot you need to get the job done.
It's time to start putting the beard and hair on the line.
I will set time goals: If you meet/beat them, you will get to assault my beautiful beard and/or head with a set of clippers. Eyebrows too! This will occur at Sectional time, only a few short weeks away. I will allow Sharpies to touch my wonderfully tanned scalp as well.
Goals:
Carrie/Joslyn - 20:15 or below.
Katlyn/Madison/Zoe - 21:45 or below.
Chelsey - 22:50
Diana/Cynthany/Sara/Kate - 23:45
Girls, I am being MORE than generous here. I expect to wind up with an EXTREMELY interesting hairdo before the season is up!
It's funny how life circles about, bringing all the seemingly loose and unrelated strands of our existence together to form the tapestries that are "us". If you will, allow me to delve into that for a few minutes. In my weird way I will eventually make a point (I hope).
I've told you before I came up in a large family. To be precise, I had four brothers and three sisters, some step-sisters, blah, blah, blah. The precise details are too convoluted to flesh out completely, and to be honest aren't particularly germane to the topic. I will say in addition to my brothers and sisters I was raised with an aunt and two uncles that were close in age. If you are counting, that's eleven kids.
It was the 60's, we were poor, and for us it was in every sense of the word a "dog-eat-dog world". There wasn't a lot of food, and what little possessions we had were shared amongst us all. Not always evenly, I might add.
That's right. When you are raised in a family like that, competition is a daily fact of life. You had to fight for food. You had to fight for possessions. You had to fight for personal space. Life was a fight.
Flashing forward to the present, I recently assigned a research/essay to my careers class. Topic: "Nature vs. Nurture". I told them both influenced their lives, but I wanted them to tell me which had more. Of course there is no answer... strong examples can be given to support either side. It's an individual issue with no right or wrong.
Here's the thing... no matter which side you choose, embedded in your answer is an "out" for anything you do wrong. I mean, if you are a product of your environment (Nurture) it's not your fault if you do anything wrong. It's how you were raised. On the other hand, if it's your genetic disposition (Nature) nothing can be your fault because that is how you are made.
Where I was trying to take them, and this may have been way over their heads, is that we struggle with outside influences all the time. We also struggle with the internal ones. We fight against our environment and our own natures, but the truth of the matter is we absolutely have a choice, always, to be our best. No excuses!
Now in my case, I can't tell you for sure if it is my nature to fight, or if that's how I was raised. It's probably a bit of both. What I can tell you is there is a switch in me, and once it is thrown, look out! I don't mean that necessarily as a scary psychopath kind of thing... it's more like I dig in my heels and there is nothing that will alter the path I have set.
When I was younger I tried so hard to avoid conflict with my siblings. This was of course impossible, given our situation, but I always tried. When push came to the inevitable shove, and the first punch landed on my face, all the pacifism was gone. Now someone was going to pay. No matter what else happened, someone was going to pay. The pain I had feared didn't matter. Losing didn't matter. Someone was going to pay.
It surprises me how often that quality has surfaced in my competitive life. I've headed into competitions fearful of things out of my control, stressing about the smallest details. In the early days that tightness would prevent me from reaching higher levels of success. What I learned as I moved on was this: once the first blow has landed and the competition is in swing, all of my fire comes forth and now someone is going to pay. I can keep my head, I can think my way through it, but someone is going to pay. It might be that unknown person in front of me, or the one after that, but someone is going to pay. This turns out to be the healthiest possible channel for how I am. I have taken a potential negative quality and turned it into a positive.
I have to believe we all have that switch - we just have different triggers. If you can find yours, find that one thing that pushes everything else out of your head so you can focus on giving everything you have, then you become great. Some need personal accomplishment, some need something bigger than themselves, a selfless act, and I can't tell you what yours will be. I can tell you you need to find it.
I will offer you something to shoot for tomorrow. Of course the challenge pales in comparison to such weighty psychological debates as "Nature vs. Nurture", but who knows, it might just be the carrot you need to get the job done.
It's time to start putting the beard and hair on the line.
I will set time goals: If you meet/beat them, you will get to assault my beautiful beard and/or head with a set of clippers. Eyebrows too! This will occur at Sectional time, only a few short weeks away. I will allow Sharpies to touch my wonderfully tanned scalp as well.
Goals:
Carrie/Joslyn - 20:15 or below.
Katlyn/Madison/Zoe - 21:45 or below.
Chelsey - 22:50
Diana/Cynthany/Sara/Kate - 23:45
Girls, I am being MORE than generous here. I expect to wind up with an EXTREMELY interesting hairdo before the season is up!
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