Dear Mother Nature-Can't you just...?

First a Plea-

Dear Mother Nature,

We Marylanders and the majority of the East coast are a bit tired of your dramatic mood swings.  I mean, come on, really-Earthquakes, Tornados, Floods, Weeks of rain…give us a break.  And if not for your love of the East coast then so that at the very least myself and the other Girls on the Run Coaches can take the girls outside to run and enjoy your beauty before the winter comes.

Thanks, in advance,
Jillianne

I am sure you all wonder what a coach does with the girls on days when it is nasty and rainy.  Well, apparently I am a wimpy coach because some coaches brave the elements and take their girls outside.  I am usually lucky enough to be able to sneak the girls into the gym and let them run and exercise in there a bit but no such luck this week.  Thankfully we were able to tie Monday’s lesson into Wednesdays a bit and get the girls to work together.  I don’t know where it comes from but these girls never cease to impress me.

Monday was probably one of my most favorite lessons of the season so far.  Learning about cooperation.  This is something I actually have a lot of experience in having worked in fields where relying on the person next to you to work with you could be the matter of life and death for yourselves or someone else relying on you.  The military was great for teaching teamwork.  So I was more than excited to teach girls from all different backgrounds and ages to work together to achieve their goals.  I sat there like a proud coach as they worked their way around the caterpillar walk, trying to keep their feet on the pieces of paper I provided while still getting all the way around the circle.  I knew before I even finished reading the lesson that someone would emerge as a leader.  It’s neat to see that take its course and see the girls working together and following the directions of one of their peers.  Plus, it really made them work as a team.  I sort of wonder how it would fly if at work when people aren’t getting along or working together if I just quietly got up and placed a bunch of paper in a circle on the floor and told everyone, “Now listen, until we can work together as a team and get around this circle, we wont be able to work together as a team to finish our project.”  I think it would work beautifully but I have a feeling that they might not be as keen to hold each other’s hands.

And I loved seeing the girls work together in their run.  I don’t think I have ever been so excited running around and cheering them on.  I feel like I look like a crazy woman out there.  Yelling at the girls things like “you can do it, help out your teammate, keep moving forward!’.  But the girls really worked hard.  Not only did every girl finish their own laps for the day but many of them ran extra to help their teammates that were struggling and paired up with them.  Cooler yet, was watching how the girls choose different running partners every work out.  I love that they are constantly changing it up themselves now and they dont need me to mix up their groups anymore.

With yesterday’s beautiful rainy day, I was of course indoors again.  However yesterdays lesson lended well to indoor activities.  Talking about peer pressure.  I love when the girls say something so insightful that it almost brings tears to my eyes that I hadn’t ever thought of it from their perspective.  Thankfully many of the girls said they don’t feel a lot of pressure from their peers.  They mentioned things like scary amusement park rides, or feeling pressured to fight with their siblings, and of course the normal things that they hear about.  We asked them if any of them felt pressured to do things like smoke, do bad things, wear certain clothing and they all looked at me and the assistant coach like we were crazy.  One girl even said, “Why would I let someone pressure me into wearing something I don’t like?” *Internal happy dance occurs and little tears form.  These girls really rock at being independent.  I hope it sticks with them.  I guess that is what we are trying to do is show the girls that they can be who they want to be as long as it leads to a healthy and positive life for themselves.

I learned a lot from my fellow coaches at our meeting and was really surprised by the things they were telling me.  And I don’t know, I have always thought I had an outstanding group of girls and that I was just being partial but wow, I didn’t know what happens for others.  Sometimes I am scared that I am too harsh on the girls or that I am not being ‘fun’ enough.  But when I see them so excited to see me walking down the hallways I stop letting myself worry.  Maybe I just got a really great batch of involved parents, maybe it’s that I have some sort of system that works, and maybe I have great assistant coaches.  Honestly though, when push comes to shove it’s the girls who make the decision to work together and be respectful towards each other and the adults running the program.  To say I am lucky is an understatement.

So when asked last night if I might be interested in doing this program again, I could barely let them finish asking before I was trying to shove my paper with my information in their hands.  As my father once said when I told him I was joining this program as a coach, “Outside of being a mother, this will be one of the most rewarding things I ever do with my life”.  Well, dad, as always you are right.