Rough Couple Of Weeks

Some say that bad things happen in threes. If that is true…then Christopher should be well on his way to having his life pick up here at any moment because, here lately? He can’t get a break. It all started with his football team losing in their semifinal vs a very good Ludlow team. Then, the 2nd quarter of his 6th grade year started and after being quite successful in the 1st quarter, the start to THIS quarter has been rocky to say the least. A lot more homework, more tests, more projects. It’s got him befuddled and despite working hard, he seems to be having difficulty with the work load. Obviously his schoolwork is the highest priority and when he struggles it makes us ALL frustrated. Yesterday, he stayed for an hour long class after school to help him with his classwork and then he came home and had over 3 hours of studying to do! He didn’t get a chance to do anything except study, read and work! I’ve had issues with his workload before so I’m hoping that this is an instance where there was just a clog of homework that his teachers gave him but when he doesn’t get a chance to relax for almost a 12 hour day? That might be a little much on an 11 year old. Despite all that…I STILL think he needs to develop better study habits. He fights me on HOW to study and his handwriting is so atrocious that I have no idea how a teacher can decipher ANYTHING on his homework pages. I feel like all I’ve been doing to him for the past 2 weeks is lecturing him at every turn and barking at him about every little thing. It’s tiring and I feel sorry for the kid.

Oh…and I almost forgot the THIRD bad thing to happen. He didn’t make his 6th grade “A” basketball team which may or may not hurt ME the most. With basketball being my favorite sport, I was looking forward to seeing him play against schools in our region and hopefully getting some quality practice time. All of his young life he’s had good coaching in football & baseball but when it comes to basketball, there hasn’t been much. This seems odd to me considering how much the state of Kentucky LOVES it’s Wildcats & Cardinals. You would think there would be a stronger push for the sport in our little area. But for whatever reason, it’s not. It’s all football all the time around here and that is difficult for me. I try to work with Fer however I’m his dad and even when I get a chance to work with him, it usually ends up with him getting irritated with me. I was hoping that this would be the year that he would get more skills training and some more organized playing time. But now he’s on the school “B” team which is pretty much like playing organized street ball. He’ll be playing in a local 6th grade league every Friday night, maybe getting a couple practices in every few weeks and basically losing time to the other kids who made the “A” team as far as camaraderie and learning how to play the game. It’s frustrating for me AND him and I feel for the kid. In my opinion, he should be on that team…but I don’t know what happened. Maybe he had a rough tryout? Maybe he just didn’t hustle like some other kids? I dunno. Either way…he didn’t make the squad so now he’s got to lace up his shoes, put his ego aside and get out there and work. Luckily, his class is so full of such good athletes that the “B” team isn’t terrible at all! He’s got several really good ball players on his team so I look forward to seeing them play and I hope he takes this year as a challenge. It’s my opinion that Christopher has never had to work hard at sports. Now, after difficult tryouts for baseball and basketball, he should know the feeling of disappointment and I hope he decides he doesn’t like the taste it leaves.

So here’s hoping that these past couple weeks will have taught him some lessons. Life isn’t always easy and there’s a lot of work to be done. God has given my son a lot of gifts. He’s a great kid and he will always rebound (I’m speaking metaphorically here). Now is his opportunity to show himself how well he can do with focus, commitment and determination. I hope he succeeds. Either way, I will be there for him however I would LOVE to see him get a little angry and work a little harder to show everyone that he belongs in that top tier…even when the odds are stacked against him. Life can be a bitch sometimes. It’ll bite a little bit. The good thing is…you can grow some teeth and bite back. Here’s hoping Chris’ incisors are sharpened and ready to attack!