Once upon a time there was a young man who eagerly signed up for a school sports team, at the start of the new school year. His delight was, rather unfortunately, cut short when he found this new experience to be……a little lacking. 

He played for a number of weeks. He was committed and diligent with showing up for practices and games. And he gave it his all. However, this young man continued to feel all the frustrations he was feeling. This was not helped by the fact that the team lost every stinking game they played for the first term and a half. Every. Single. Game. 

Eventually the young man in question spoke aloud those four words that most parents shudder and quake at the mentioning of…..

I want to quit. 

Oy vey. 

Crapola. 

What to do, what to do? 

The parents really didn’t blame him. 

So the parents muttered and uttered all the things they thought they were supposed to say in this situation. 

The team is depending on you.

You have to show continued commitment.

This is character building. 

They tried to show him empathy. They tried to shower him with encouragement. But still, it was a stink situation. 

Just when the parents were starting to weaken and just when they were considering brokering some kind of a deal with the young man….they considered telling him he had to see out the end of that term but could miss the last term…they realized they had been given some wrong information and the team only had three games to go before the end of the season. 

That was a huge win, for everyone. The parents didn’t have to concede and let the young man quit. And the young man could see the end in sight and finish the season well. The whole painful experience would soon be over. For all. 

But you know, along with that whole light at the end of the tunnel business…..the team’s third to last game just happened to turn out well for them and became their first win. And not just a scraping through win, no, it was a rip snorter of a win. 20 – 4, with six of those points earned by this young man in question.  Who knows what the last two games will bring….

Persistence, persistence, persistence. Holding your ground. Sometimes that’s a lesson needing to be learned by both kids AND parents.  And you never know what surprises will save your bacon.