Roosevelt has a quote:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
The first time I saw this, I was flipping through a flyer from a Tae-kwon-do competion that my brother and I had competed in. I was in Junior High and even at that time it had a profound impact. So much so that I had cut it out and put it on the fridge, and it still posted there on my parents fridge. What it has meant to me has changed somewhat in the years since, but over the past few months as I’m exploring ways to improve my mental health and to contribute to those around me it returned.
August/September offered me opportunity to try something that is completely new, but also very much different. I also got an opportunity to get back into what got me started in Edmonton as well. To the first I volunteered/got volunteered to be head coach for my son’s hockey team. I had coached football *soccer for many years so I was not worried about not being able to coach. Connect with players and parents, encourage performance; this was “same/same”. Or so I thought. Stepping into hockey was very much drinking from the firehose. I was open and honest with the players and parents that this was something new to me but I had a plan. With only two ties, a number of blow outs, and some close games my Warriors entered the Christmas tournament without a win. I had expected this to some degree as I told the team that I planned to be competitive by Christmas and seeing consistent success by playoffs. Fast forward to this week and my boys went 4-0 in the tournament. A friend of mine told me “winning solve a lit of problems”. And it did. I got into coaching hockey and I felt so much like a fish out of water, but now with some valient striving, I don’t feel that I am the impostor.
I still have half a season of hockey left and I’m not at all saying that I’m going to be able to guide my players to glory but I am willing to get dirty and certainly try.
My second opportunity is related to returning to academia. I haven’t taught in post secondary in over a decade and I’m feeling many of the same “feels” that I had coaching hockey. Thinking to myself am I really ready to step back into that world? Well I’ll find out in a few weeks. I have a feeling I’ll be fine, despite the workload and change to life/work. There will be losses, but eventually working with those who are wiser and those who I am hoping to help grow, there will be success. I can say this because I know I will try greatly and the imposter, if I were he, would merely stand at the side to point out flaws.
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