It’s a 5K type of week!
So what was outstanding about Monday’s practice? The girls of course! Really, the message we got to go over was pretty easy and standard, don’t believe that everything you see in an ad is good for you. Wham, bam-thank you ma’am, these girls are smart and don’t need a lot of direction about such a lesson.
But there are moments in your life that will always stick with you. Walking in and the girl that seemed so grumpy the week before is suddenly in an amazing mood. I mean, the girls have hard days too, I know that but it definitely affects me more than I want to admit. I mean, I want to think I make their days as good as they make mine, but I know its just not always possible.
But walking in and having struggled through my own day just from being exhausted from being up all night with homework of my own, and this little girl runs up to me and gives me a hug and tells me she didn’t mean to be in such a bad mood literally lifted my mood right away. I don’t know where I muster up any energy from when I go to these practices but they deserve my best and they most definitely get it. Such a joyful moment having the girls give me hugs and just feeling like they are really happy to be there.
So just because I am so proud of these girls and of this program, there is this little story I have to share. We have a little guest, we will call her Violet. She comes on occasion to practice with her mom when I need an extra set of hands. My parents are amazing and they are really great to work with and really great at communicating with me. Anyways, Violet had something to tell me. She got to attend our lessons on Bullying and on how to respond to people who are hurting you. On Halloween she was being teased/bullied by another girl who was making fun of her choice in costume. Violet took a moment to go up to the girl and tell her the following,
“ I feel really bad and sad when you are being mean to me. It hurts my feelings, Can you stop being mean to me and making me sad please?”
The other little girl stopped teasing her. Violet is only 6! I don’t know what affected me more-that she is only 6 and she felt like she was being bullied or that she is only 6 and she stood up for herself using lessons she learned hanging out with us at Girls on the Run.
Either way, sorry that I am such a sap, I most definitely had to hold back a lot of tears of happiness this past Monday. Hugs and happy stories-I guess I never realized how much of an affect 2 ½ hours a week can have on these girls lives!
OK-so officially I think some of the parents and my assistant coach think I am completely nuts. And well, I don’t have much ground to stand on to argue this opinion (fact or opinion is all a matter of perspective in this situation). But Wednesday was our practice 5k. And you know what, I wanted to make sure that the girls had as great an experience as possible. So it started with Monday nights email to my parents-more of a begging of-please make sure your girls come dressed appropriately…even with a list of items that I think would work best. This is just where it starts.
Then Tuesday I realized I have pink card stock paper at home and I want to try and print their certificates of completion on them. The nerd that I am proud to be comes out and my director kindly emails me our training package with all the forms in PDF. I then through a little effort recreate the pdf into a word file and insert text boxes so that I can type each girls name into the certificate and print it Tuesday night on pink card stock.
And then I go completely madd. I was up till 130 am printing certificates for the girls, making cupcakes, slicing oranges, making signs for the course, slicing banana’s, packing up everything I needed, and prepping a play list on my ipod (which was probably my hardest task because I unfortunately don’t own a lot of music I feel has a message that is positive for the girls and upbeat . Sorry Brittany, Ke$ha, and the majority of pop singers, your music talking about how you drink, party, need or are dumping a current guy, sex, and whatever…is not appropriate for the message we are trying to give these girls).
So you know that term, “It takes a Village”. I had the help of my roommate unloading everything and getting everything set up and then helping with my kids while I worked with the girls. My older daughter has wanted to come to a practice and she was overwhelmed with happiness to get to come. There were parents that came and were all around the little track I set up for the girls cheering them on with signs and high fives. There was my assistant coach who has this insane amount of energy! And there was music and dancing. YEP DANCING-I don’t know what the girls enjoyed more, watching me and the coach dance for them or dancing themselves once they stopped being embarrassed about it. We definitely had a blast and I couldn’t be prouder of the girls than if they were my own.
I was definitely exhausted last night after everything so for the first time in weeks at 930 after I emailed my parents their weekly wrap up-I looked at my bed and decided, staying up till midnight doing homework just wasn’t an option. My bed was calling me. But if you asked me if I would do it all over again knowing how tired I would be? I would tell you, I already have ideas of other things to add to the next time I get to have a practice 5k with my next team.
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