Nervousness and Pride

While the amount of emotions on this field is hard to capture an image, I can feel the butterflies in my stomach just looking at the photo again. Dylan went back and forth this year about whether he wanted to play flag football or not. He told us that he loved playing flag football but absolutely hated trying out. His fear of tryouts was about to keep him from doing something that he enjoys. The tryouts are intimidating with a group of men watching you try to perform your best and all eyes are on you. I had the worst case of butterflies in my stomach and I was just the mom on the sideline and I can only imagine how nerve-wracking it is for the kids! All of the adults involved are super supportive but there's something about knowing you want to perform your best and not being sure if you're going to be able to. Dylan was very nervous when we arrived but I was so proud of him as I watched him take each step and get through it. When he was younger he would have just walked away, but he has grown so much, and instead of fleeing he stayed. He swallowed hard, he rubbed his hands together, he said he felt like he was going to be sick but he stayed and despite his nervousness he got up there and did it! And not only that, he did a wonderful job. My favorite part of the tryouts was when I looked at him and said "Dylan I am so proud of you for doing this despite the fact that I know you really don't want to tryout" and he said "I'm proud of me too." Life may be hard, but often times the hard things we do are worth the nervousness and fear we temporarily feel in order to bring us a sense of pride at the accomplishment that life's a lifetime.