Field-Trip with the Wildcat

Tomorrow I get to take a field trip with my 17-year old!

Ten years ago, class field trips to the zoo, museums, IMAX, plays and things like that were a regular-volunteer-gig for this mama. 

Gradually, these field trips with his class dwindled.  But I hardly noticed because I was busy volunteering for the same things with his three younger sisters. 

Those field trips have dwindled way down too. 

But I have good news.  I think.  I'm adding more field trips with Nathan to my calendar.

Except they aren't called "field trips," as much as they are called "college visits."  

(sniff)


Tomorrow's field trip isn't one of those college visits.  It's a football kicking camp that he signed up for over Christmas break.

But to me, this camp represents more than football.  More than getting better as the team kicker. 

It represents picking yourself up after a devastating loss of a goal, brushing yourself off, and finding a new goal. 

It represents accepting a new role.

It represents commitment to a team. 

It represents a maturity of accepting a situation that couldn't be changed and instead, decided to make a change for himself.

It represents the heart of a kid who could have acted like he lost out.  But instead went after a new dream. 

If you've followed me here on the blog for any time now, you may remember how Nathan had some medical issues during his sophomore year.  During football season.  A season where he called plays, ran the ball and led his team.

Until he couldn't run the ball, call plays or lead the team.

Symptoms that acted like a concussion were really low red blood cell counts.  Counts that kept going down.  Counts that acted like leukemia.  Something that we couldn't know until the day that he went down. 

You can read more about that HERE

Fast forward to the summer before Nathan's Junior year.    Having been cleared of all medical issues, there was still a recommendation for no contact in football. 

For a leader like Nathan, who happened to be a quarterback for JV, this was devastating news. 

But.

He still wanted to be a part of his team.  Even if it meant doing something he had never done before.  Even if it meant wearing a jersey on the sidelines and filling water bottles. 

He spent his summer, after work and after baseball down on the football field.  He could no longer throw the ball, so he started to kick it.  He enlisted the help of sisters to hold the ball, and his mama to video him.  So he could teach himself what worked and what didn't. 

And he had success during his Junior year kicking. 

So this field trip is for him.  So he can learn from others who kick.  So he can be a better kicker his Senior year of high school. 

But to me...this field trip means more than that.

It represents a lesson that I have learned from my kid.

When one dream doesn't work out, you don't quit.  You pick up a new dream.

And you kick it through the uprights.