Normally when you witness an event so impressive that you call it a Life Lesson you get time to mentally process what's happened, reflect upon and decide how it will impact your life and move on. Today my girls and I got hit with three of the suckers within about 2 hours. We are all reeling a bit so I'm writing it all down in one fell swoop so hopefully someday we call all have the time we need to process all of it. Most importantly, I want to make sure we all learn from them.
Today my Tessi went to Zone for her school. Australian schools have sports and swimming annual carnivals. The the top two kids in each race go compete at Zone against kids who did equally well at their schools. Since there hasn't been a School Zone Carnival for Biggest Mood Swing, Highest Pitch of Ear Piercing Screech, # of Continuous Hours playing Xbox or Longest Single Duration of Sock Wearing, none of my kids have ever gone to Zone.
Except this year. Tessi has gone twice for running events. She is insanely fast for chick whose last name is Tencza. We're more known for our brute force abilities, skills of manipulation and warfare and dare I say it... deception and chicanery. We all kind of like that obnoxious phrase, "I don't hurry, I make OTHERS hurry." Running fast ourselves? Eh, not so much.
Despite our previous track record here I find myself, at a sports carnival early in the morning. Earlier than the rest of our school since our note said Tessi was running in the 800, 100 and 200 meter races and the 800 racers needed to be there early. Marvy.
As luck would have it, Connor is with us because she is still sick as a dog and couldn't go to school. When you have more than one kid you must quickly learn that sacrifices must be made. Sometimes one child must be given up for another. One child has a bad cold but wasn't dying. Another child is the youngest of three and always feels like her siblings get the better of her. Sorry Connor, your turn in the barrel today. Here's a tissue.
Turns out I needed more than tissues. Upon arrival we found out that Tessi wasn't in the 800 race. There was a huge confusion and forms with names flew all over the place. Finally the rest of our school arrived and I was able to grab hold of the teacher who runs all these events. I check with him and discover that Tessi was given the wrong note. Yep. Special trip out there with a sick kid and Tessi was planning on racing 3 times. Turns out all she is doing is one race.
I was less than amused but there really was no one to yell at. The teacher who handed out the notes wasn't there. Even if he was, he's a full time teacher for the troubled kids class at our school who got handed this extra duty ON TOP of everything else he's doing. He's not incompetent, he's overworked. I'm gonna tear him a new one? No, I'm not. However, I am the one about about to get a new one torn because I get to tell Tessi that she can only do one race.
Dreading Life, I walked up and pulled her close and explained what happened. She was crushed as she really wanted to show everyone how fast she is. But she stood there, listened to everything I said, held herself together, said it was alright and ran off to play with her friends. Later on, after she ran her race, she wished she could have run more but was happy to run for her school. Then she hugged and thanked me for letting her come to Zone. She's eight, has severe trouble regulating her emotions, and handled that better than I could have ever expected. I thought I would never see behavior so impressive again. However, I was wrong.
For the 800m race we had one of our school speed demons participate. He is lightening in a bottle. His winning or at least getting 2nd place was a given. The boys lined up and I stopped paying attention. The the gun rang out and at the first turn, he fell. He was down on the ground for a good 10 seconds as the rest of the racers took off without him. He was done. It was over for him.
Except it wasn't. Not for him. Instead of walking off of the field, he rose up off of the ground and continued to run the race. I watched him slowly close a humongous gap and join the pack of runners. Unable to look away, I cheered stupid loud as he not only kept up with the racers but managed to finish ahead of at least three or four others.
That's right....three or four very good athletes ran that race well and crossed the finish line AFTER the kid who fell. I couldn't tell you anything about the kids who came in first, second or third because none of them were more thrilling to watch than this young man who finished near the end. I don't say this often, but it was a privilege to watch him. I spent quite a few minutes chewing the ear of the supervising teacher who had missed the race. He should know what a magnificent kid our school had representing it. I hope the whole school knows it.
I am generally one of the most cynical, jaded human beings you will ever meet. Today I saw some of the finest displays of courage, determination and simply good sportsmanship that I have ever seen. I was in awe and humbled.
Immediately after her race I took the girls and left. Normally Tessi would stay to cheer on her school but Connor really needed to be home. I was so proud of Tessi that I offered her ice cream at McDonald's, known in OZ as Maccas. Waiting in line at the drive through we got our third learning moment of the day.
In front of me a woman lost her . ever . loving . mind . because......wait for it.....there was too much sauce on her hamburger. I am painfully aware of the improper sauce to bun ratio because from her car, she threw the hamburger back out the window at the kid in the drive thru and screamed bloody murder. She carried on and on, demanding a manager, waving her arms like a windmill and ranting about the sauce, oh, dear god, the sauce.
Connor became very upset as she does not like confrontation and begged me to roll the window up. Tessi kept asking if that was a kid or a mom acting like that. Shamefully I had to admit it was a mom....I could see the car seats in her car. This woman screamed and rallied for a good five minutes, backing up the line down and out behind me. After she was done spewing her venom she stormed off and it was my turn to drive up to the counter. I told the girl at the counter to take a deep breath and that she was ok, everything was going to be alright. The poor girl was barely in her twenties...IF that. That miserable sow in the car was shoving 40 awfully hard and she had a hissy fit at a kid she could have once babysat for. There are words profane enough to describe this woman's behavior accurately but as I've said, my mother-in-law reads this blog.
The entire car ride home we discussed nasty people and how some people feel just too important for their own good. My girls listed all things someone should say if their order gets messed up and very reproachfully said that yelling and throwing food was NOT the solution. They were horrified that a grown up would do that. I said she may have been an adult but she certainly was NOT grown up. Tessi stated that the woman in the car deserved to get nothing from Maccas ever again! It was the worst punishment she could think to inflict.
All of this occurred before noon today. The three of us are still blinking hard and looking around each other slowly. I'll be honest. I'm glad we are home for the day.
To the "lady" in the silver station wagon Peugeot at Maccas in Thornleigh drive-thru around 11:30am: I know we all have tough times but WOW. You have issues. I am so grateful I didn't see your kids in the car with you, please calm down before you see them again.
To the gorgeous children who participated in Zone today: thank you. Thank you for reminding me how beautiful human beings can be and allowing me to share in your day. I am so proud of all of you.
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