The race went well and everyone finished without mishap. One of the coolest things about the event was seeing all of the family and friends who came out to run with, cheer on and just generally support the girls. It made me feel part of a very special and strong community that cares about our youth, which was a pretty powerful and overwhelming feeling.
We have our last practice tomorrow which is going to be more of a party and awards ceremony. We're going to give the money we raised at the bake sale to a Human Society representative and we're going to talk about what we liked and what we learned from the program as well as hand out individual certificates. But mostly we're going to have one last chance to hang out, eat snacks and have fun together.
If you know me, you know I'm not really much of a kid person. I generally find children to be frustrating and at times extremely unreasonable to deal with. Being a coach pushed me way outside my comfort zone and I know that being a camp counselor is going to stretch me even further. But meeting with this group of 8-10 year olds turned out not only to be fascinating as I learned a lot about their emotional and developmental stages but also extremely rewarding as I saw them change and grow as people. Turns out a lot can change for pre-teens in three months. I'm going to miss talking about sleepovers, report cards, dance routines, hair braiding options and the latest cute thing to collect.
Over the course of the program girls opened up about problems at school (bullying, cheating, tattling, mean girls, exclusion), issues at home (divorce, adoption, death, money) and personal issues (being lonely, low self-esteem, stress). It was so hard for me to try and think back to what life was like for me as an eight-year-old so that I could try and relate with their daily struggles and thought processes. But above all, being a GOTR coach challenged me to be silly. Without a doubt, one of the most common critiques for me in the past both professionally and personally has been that I take myself too seriously. I don't really enjoy 'doing' silly but successfully wrangling a gaggle of girls twice a week simply demanded it. It was a challenge, but I learned a lot and loosened up. Fortunately, for me, I have someone in my life who is an expert at all things silly and ridiculous - perhaps I should be paying more attention.