{"id":125,"date":"2011-11-10T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T07:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wordynerdy\/2011\/11\/rookie-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2011-11-10T07:20:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T07:20:00","slug":"rookie-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wordynerdy\/2011\/11\/rookie-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Rookie of the Year!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Last night Scott and I made a point of attending the swim team banquet with Ling-Ling . \u00a0We both missed her Foreign Language Award ceremony last spring because we of work commitments. \u00a0Ling had said it was OK, that she wasn\u2019t getting any special awards so it wasn\u2019t a big deal, but then came home saying, \u201cUm, I think you guys should have come, I was the only kid who had no parents there.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Let me just pause to stab myself in the heart.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Swim team has been a bit of a saga (read about it in\u00a0Faking Robyn<\/a>,\u00a0T-P-ed<\/a>,\u00a0Sports Mama. . . Not<\/a>). \u00a0<\/div>\n
Ling\u2019s awakened every morning at 4:15 a.m. to be picked up by 4:40 to swim by 5. \u00a0After following the bad advice of her YMCA swim coach to not swim with the high school team last year, she started this year as a sophomore. \u00a0As an extremely shy and introverted girl, she felt totally insecure about joining late. \u00a0Everyone else had already made friends and she was odd girl out.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But she kept showing up for practice. \u00a0She kept swimming. \u00a0And because she actually can butterfly (a stroke I\u2019ve never even learned!), she swam butterfly in 2 events every single meet. \u00a0She\u2019s improved her swim times. \u00a0She\u2019s made a lot of cheerful acquaintances, if not actual friends. \u00a0Most importantly, she\u2019s been a part of a team. \u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The swim meet in Sudbury that took an hour to drive to and from\u2013in rush hour<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

At the\u00a0Winchester Country Club,\u00a039 girls with great toned arms in teeny dresses and teenier skirts revealed their \u201cSecret Swimmer\u201d status and gave each other their final \u201cSecret Swimmer\u201d gifts. \u00a0They sat together while parents drank wine and commiserated about 4 a.m. wake up times. <\/p>\n

I had a great time despite the woman next to me saying, \u201cThey let you in with jeans?\u201d pointing at my skirt. \u00a0\u201cThey usually kick you out for wearing denim! \u00a0You can\u2019t wear anything like that here!\u201d<\/p>\n

We went to the banquet not knowing what to expect (as made extremely clear by my neighbor\u2019s comments). \u00a0Ling thought she might letter, but lost the scoring sheet so didn\u2019t know if she\u2019d earned enough points. \u00a0But no matter what she achieved we wanted to support Ling. \u00a0And after doing the dump run fundraiser, the ovarian cancer fundraiser, and paying for all sorts of swim paraphernalia, I wanted the one free parent meal (paying $30 for Scott). <\/p>\n

So imagine our surprise and delight when she not only earned a Varsity letter but also \u201cRookie of the Year!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The coach praised her for giving her all, and always being willing to jump in and compete in whatever the coach threw at her. <\/p>\n

Wow!<\/p>\n

How did my spawn actually achieve such athletic glory? <\/p>\n

First quarter sophomore year, I got a C+ in PE. \u00a0Mama looked at that grade, laughed and said, \u201cPE is the only area you\u2019re allowed to get a C.\u201d \u00a0I pulled my PE grades up to the B range for the rest of the year, but student\/athlete I was NOT.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m the 4 year old kid who Mama put in ballet because I was such a klutz. \u00a0She hoped ballet would teach me some grace. \u00a0I became more graceful\u2013neighborhood kids incessantly teased me that when I walked it looked like I was dancing\u2013but I was still a klutz.<\/p>\n

I walk into sofas and doors and walls. \u00a0I shut my trunk on my pinky while telling a friend how bad I am at knowing where my body lies in space.<\/p>\n

I may be a Chinese Tiger mom who got her only high school C in PE. \u00a0I may embarrass humiliate myself and my daughter by wearing denim to the Winchester Country Club. \u00a0I may still have not a single sports bone in my body. \u00a0But I\u2019m sure proud of my girl.<\/p>\n

And so glad she doesn\u2019t take after me.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night Scott and I made a point of attending the swim team banquet with Ling-Ling . \u00a0We both missed her Foreign Language Award ceremony last spring because we of work commitments. \u00a0Ling had said it was OK, that she wasn\u2019t getting any special awards so it wasn\u2019t a big deal, but then came home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRookie of the Year!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last night Scott and I made a point of attending the swim team banquet with Ling-Ling .  We both missed her Foreign Language Award ceremony last\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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