We rise by lifting others! —-Author Unknown

I have felt like a klutz for much of my life! I am not a naturally athletic person at all, at least that is how I became programed to think of myself when I was young. I was a rather small and waif like child with skinny legs and little experience with organized sports but I was able to do tricks and skate backwards better than anyone in the neighborhood. If someone threw a ball my way my instinct was to dodge it, not catch it. It seemed that my hand eye coordination was nil except for the fact that I was able to twirl a baton as though it was just an extension of my body. 

I began to fear participating in sports because I did not know how to control the coordination of my eyes and my hands. Even though I ran like the wind I was still unable to keep up with my classmates because I was so much smaller than they were. In my mind I began to think of myself as a loser when it came to anything connected with physical activities that forced me to work with a team. After all, when the truly gifted athletes selected the members of their teams I was always one of the last to be chosen and even then I had to endure the groans of my peers who already knew that I would bring them down. 

I was not only a full year younger than my classmates but I also turned out to be a late bloomer who looked like a ten year old child well into my high school years. I recall taking an art class one summer and without verifying my actual age the instructor submitted my drawings and paintings to a contest for elementary school children when I was a junior in high school. It embarrassed me to learn that I had taken the top prize from children so much younger than I was so I never went back to claim my glory. 

I suppose as I felt like a failure in the world of sport I felt less and less certain about myself. I withdrew into a kind of quiet resignation that somehow I was not built to partake of team sports of any kind. My brain told me that I need not even try to catch or throw a ball. I knew that if I attempted to glide over a hurdle I would catch my foot on the apparatus and feel the pain of being a loser so I avoided any activity having to do with athletics. I had convinced myself that my prowess on skates and my bicycle was not a sign that with the right instruction and practice I might be able to overcome my deficiencies. Instead I sat on the sidelines unwilling to demonstrate how awkward I felt. 

I was in my thirties when I took a couple of mandatory classes to prepare for teaching certain skills to my students. Some schools required my ability to not just give instructions in mathematics but also in physical activities. Instead of avoiding such jobs I knew that I had to overcome my fears and so there I was taking one course in movement and another in general sports. 

I started with the movement class and as luck would have it my instructor was an amazing man with a doctorate in physical education. He almost immediately took me aside and complimented the control of my body that I seemed to have when I moved along with music. He often used me as the exemplar for the different activities. It felt good to be able to achieve success in an activity that made use of my limbs that I had always believed to be gangly and uncoordinated. 

The next class I took was with the same instructor and it was an introduction to every conceivable sport. After the first session the prof asked me to stay behind and then he grilled me on my experience with athletic activities. When I told him my sad tale he insisted that the problem was not with me but with the teachers who had failed to coach me on the proper ways of learning how to successfully participate in each sport. He invited me to stay after each class so that he might study my stance and show me how to plant my feet and use my arms. 

Before long I was connecting every pitch thrown at my bat. I was catching passes of the football and sinking basketballs into the net. It felt so good to finally be successful in an arena where I had always felt like a failure. Not only did the experience build my confidence but it demonstrated the importance of working with students who were afraid of math. I learned that most of us do not just learn how to do things naturally. As educators and even parents we have to provide guidance and practice in whatever we are attempting to teach our young. 

I am still less comfortable with athletic feats than taking a test in mathematics but I no longer chastise myself for being uncoordinated. Once someone showed me exactly how to make things happen on a volleyball court or in a softball game I was assured that everyone is capable of learning if someone provides them with specific and caring help in overcoming mental and physical hurdles. 

Whenever I find a student who feels like a loser I remember the professor who worked so hard to provide me with the confidence in the athletic abilities that I had always believed I did not have. I learned the important lesson that life is not a race or a contest and that with time and patience we each have the ability to overcome the difficulties that seem to be holding us back. We do indeed rise together whenever we lift those among us who are afraid or in need of a bit more time to tackle any kind of situation. Patience and encouragement are powerful and so much more motivating than gold medals. There is also so much joy in helping someone to learn something that they believed was impossible. We all rise in such moments.