On February 16, 1993, in the middle of a blizzard, I was blessed with a little boy. We named him Ryan after my grandfather. Ryan means "Little King", and boy does it fit.
Ryan's first act of love towards his father was to immediately pee all over him. At that moment they bonded. Ryan is so much like Craig that I have often wondered if there is any of me in him. Then I will catch a glimpse in his eye and I know there is some of me in there. The funny quirky side of him comes from me. He also gets his analytical side from me. There are things that I have to explain to Craig and Hope that Ryan just gets.
Ryan is now 15, a freshman in high school. He is basically a good kid. I wish he would get his grades up but at least he is working on it. He LOVES Basketball. Our AAU season just started. This year he is on a new team. He was approached by 4 teams and he picked this one. We have participated in two tournaments so far. The first tournament they took 2nd place. The second one they took 4th. The first tournament we played our age group of 15 and under. The second tournament they bumped themselves up to Jr. Varsity. Them boys are a lot bigger.
What is amazing to me is the team was happier with the 4th place finish in the second tournament then the 2nd place finish in the first tournament. The first tournament was a breeze through tournament, it was easy. If the other team hadn't played a little dirty we would have taken 1st place. The second tournament was a we are getting our butts (that isn't a cuss word right, Cindy?) kicked tournament.
After the second tournament the coach called the team together and gave them an option. Do you want to play the easy tournaments and get the wins or do you want to play the harder ones, learn more advanced skills and not win as much.
In other words....Do you want it handed to you or do you want to fight for it and earn it?
All 10 boys choose the harder option. They want the competition. Ryan says it is no fun to blow the opponent away. I am so stinking proud of my little man that is 6 feet tall.
Which way would you choose?
The easy way or the hard way?
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Ryan - My Son
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7 comments:
Honestly? of course I have taken the hard way.
But I love it when I choose the right way and then I'm a total success..
6 feet tall, sounds like my 15 year old. Does he smell too? :)
Loving you
I want to say I always prefer to work harder and learn something, but that would be a LIE. Although I do like it afterward. Working hard is just such hard work.
there are many times I take the hard road when I know I will learn something. But as I get older the hard road tends to be people forcing their crud on me and asking me to fix it. I have learned to say no to that kind of hard road
I want the easy way, but I know I'll take the hard one. It always makes for a better outcome. Unless of course you're talking about eating Oreo's straight out of the bag, or digging them out of ice cream.
I believe butt is completely appropriate in this context :)
1) butt is okay in OK
2) the easy was is easy
3) the hard way is more memorable
4) you guys grow em tall in CA!
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