“Those are my soccer socks!” Jake is shouting back in the bedrooms. “Take them off!”
“You already wore mine!” John shouts back. “All the rest are too small!”
It seems black socks are an elusive thing in our house on this day, and so the battle is on for the remaining uniform requirement that both of them need but no one wants to change.
I try to broker a trade but it appears neither side is willing to budge although both are willing to wear yesterday’s dirty socks again without blinking an eye!
We’re wrapping up the end of a marathon weekend that included four baseball games, and three soccer games and a lot of black socks. Clean clothes are at a minimum, although I do find an extra sock that isn’t ours, oddly enough, in the laundry.
While this likely won’t be the last whirlwind weekend like this, it may be one of the last to include soccer socks…at least for awhile.
Like so many boys entering 4th grade, Jake is wildly excited about playing tackle football for the first time. But to do so, he will be leaving behind, at least for the fall season, a game he’s been playing since he was a toddler, the other futbol. Soccer has been a game Jake mastered early and excelled at because of his natural hunger to compete and score, along with his gift of speed.
While our older son needed years of encouragement before he was comfortable playing soccer in attack mode, it seems Jake came pre-programmed to automatically take on the game like everything else he does, in a sprint.
This weekend he told me he wanted to win his MAYSA Cup games so bad, he was sure they couldn’t lose. Naturally, I encouraged him to play his best but to be happy with a good performance whether that came with a win or not. But an even more determined Jake showed up on the field than we’ve ever seen before. It was as though he wanted to leave his mark here and, at age 8, knew how he wanted to walk off the soccer field, maybe for the last time. It was a performance to remember.
Now I’m looking back at his pictures from soccer with mixed emotions. He’s put in a lot of time to learn this game and become good at it. But he’s been waiting it seems his whole life to play this other sport and I can sense his competitive drive revving up every time there is talk of running backs, interceptions and scoring touchdowns.
And so, we reach another milestone with Jake, turning the page to a new adventure that he can’t wait to rush into. Perhaps we will be back at soccer and perhaps not. Either way, I know he will pour his heart and soul into his sport of choice and we will be all the richer for having the chance to watch and cheer along the way. And chances are he’ll play it wearing black socks.
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