Losses and Gains

The teams lost to HC-I on Wednesday. While the girls are through to the finals for a 1-2 finish, the guys will have to settle for a 3-4 placing - the sadness is palpable for the boys. Yet I wasn't too upset because from the first time I screamed at them for their horrible team work and absence of expected basic skill to the game that day, I had seen improvement & hard work which I am proud of. Not of myself but of them... until recently when I heard that a handful want to throw in the towel at this point, before the season even ended and that stirred up the red eye monster in me because how can you throw it away when you have teammates who are willing to fight? What kind of selfish, self-centered person are you doing in a team sports? Are you being even fair to your coach or teachers who have to stay up on those late nights and Saturdays? As much as I want to sympathise the 'loss', betrayal and such selfishness are definitely intolerable. I think I am a nice person. But not that nice.

NICENESS
Yet sometimes i think I am too nice in school. I played along, I laughed and I gave encouragement but sometimes I am not sure if the kid know that he/she is going too far and know when to cut off as part of decorum and respect. Immaturity or ignorance or both? I think I have high tolerance because of my work with youth outside where I often closed one eye and choose to look at the heart beneath. But didn't my kids realise that these are life-skills? Sometimes you think you are being taken for granted

FOr all the woes and miseries, I am glad to have a friend who called me up for dinner on Wed because he spotted a distressed msg on one of my online platforms. We consoled each other over pasta and mudpies, reminding each other that there are still roses in the path and we just do the best we can as we learn.