ever wonder who you'd be if something formative didn't happen to you before age 10? Come on, you know by this time most of us (secretly) wanted to start shaving our legs because the big kids doing it, if we hadn't already done it behind our mother's back. Remember how turning 10 was a really big deal? There was something so grown, so special about reaching a perfectly round number, one decade, even though at that age we had no concept of what decades truly meant. Reaching 10 is also the middle point between birth and age 20, the next big round number.
at 10 we're in the phase where we are transitions from the spontaneous, rambunctious, care-free childhood years into the logical, wide-eyed and then turbulent years of adolescence. which is why i'm advocating that if you have a little girl 10 years and younger please play close attention. while you still got the time, and before your little girl enters the hormonal years of middle school, put her on a basketball team, make her knit sweaters and for the sake of a long, healthy life, make sure she sings in public all before the perfect 10. (if you got a girl whose in 6th grade, you still got a chance. 7th grade is a toss up, girls will either be there, or well, not all there) <--yikes. i've seen the instability of 7th and 8th graders up close and personal, and even as a mature adult I needed some therapy while working with this group because they drove me crazy.
i feel bold enough to say all this because of abby, who inspired me today. when abby came to me three weeks ago, she had never played basketball. abby is 8 years old. i mean, believe me, i thought we were going to need Lisa Leslie on the court, because when abby threw the ball up for the first time it landed two feet in front of her. OUCH. i remembered the lessons i learned with selena, and the teacher in me took over. "okay so you wanna do right foot in front of left, push up and out with right hand, keep wrist straight up in the air". the first 30 minutes were long and painful. BUT finally, abby made her first shot. WOW. you should have seen the twinkle in her eye, and the pep in her step. she walked differently. she probably made two shots more that day, and it was good. i thought that would be the end of the story until...
okay so this evening abby comes back to me, she doesn't speak a lick by the way, she's just that type of girl. but i have to say she's speaking basketball pretty well tonight. after warming up she made more than 10 baskets today. i was floored. i could see the confidence rise within her as she smiled more and more with each basket she made. MONEY. she ran to get the ball with determination, and by the end of our time together i heard her speak two words(YES and THANK YOU), which was more than I'd ever heard her speak.
all little girls should have sky rocket confidence. this world is still shaky for them. I consider myself a daughter of many nations, and the mother of future generations. abby is a success story here in the present and to come in future. she has the potential to join basketball teams, to see the world with this talent. abby has the capacity to overcome the ugly beautiful early teenage years knowing that she can dominate the court. playing a sport is a language all little girls should be well versed in. i see so many boys rolling around the gym floor, because someone is telling them they can. girls need that too.
next time i see abby i'll remind her of her potential, i'll also encourage her to take on knitting. because a woman in my class knits and i think we should all be knitting because the rhymtic motion of the hands is calming even in the most chaotic of times. in our complex society, its the simple things that will make the difference. and the glory of victory that looks like this: a little girl swooshes the ball and SCORES. she has clearly accomplished something palpable, something she can see with her own two eyes, something that will resonate for a lifetime. little girls everywhere pick up a basketball, a soccer ball, a whatever and PLAY. then pick up a needle and thread and knit your own world. and finally pick up a mic and sing to the nations, we're waiting to hear you.
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