Raising A Champion
If you follow me on social media you would have figured out by now that I put my 7-year old daughter on a plane by herself to take part in a gymnastics camp in the US. What many of my followers don't seem to get is how hard these things are to do. Not just emotionally but financially. Last week someone commented on one of my posts with these words "maybe I don't understand the struggle because I homeschool" I don't think I saw much more after those words.
Very few people are willing to see just how much we sacrifice in pursuit of a better life for our children. I remember when I was doing interviews for my book - Interviewing Keshorn Walcott and hearing how he sold crab at the side of the road or my interview with Dwyane Bravo and how the entire village pitched in to buy his cricket gear. We see the success and we see the lifestyle of people but we refuse to see the sacrifice. We refuse to admit that the only reason we do not have similar lifestyles is simply because we are not prepared to go as far.
Yes, life is unfair and yes for some success is much further to reach, but it is never impossible and the journey to get there builds the character needed to stay on top when we get there.
Five years ago I earned a package in excess of $20,000/month. I gave it all up to raise my daughter full time.
I totally understood the challenges of being a single working mom and I made a choice to quit the system. I chose a different kind of struggle. I knew the sacrifice I made now would pay off later.
I was 29 years old at the time when I left my job and my parents are far from rich. So know that I, leaving the corporate world wasn't because I had a rich baby daddy or rich parents to rely on.
I was always a saver. I always understood financial sacrifice. This allowed me to purchase a house at age 24. Again another feet accomplished through grit and determination because I grew up in a home where we barely made ends meet. I sold my home when I made the decision to leave the corporate world. I used the profits to survive while I worked on a plan to make money working from home. For me, raising my daughter full time was the greatest investment I could ever make. A decision I have never regretted. I had not "struck gold" yet, so when savings ran out there were many days when we did groceries by raiding my parents' kitchen. I remember clearly a day sitting in traffic, both Jess and I hungry but there was no money in my wallet or in my account so we just had to wait till we got home. There was no option of buying something on the way home, and of course when we finally got home, the options there weren't that great either. So forgive me, when I blow a fuse when people accuse me of "not understanding the struggle." I fully understand the struggle. It's why I made the choice to quit my job and work towards something different.
What's the point of complaining if you have no intention of changing your situation?
But you guys see a single mom, blessed enough to work from home and home-school her daughter and now to top it all off, she is off to the top gymnastics camp in the world.
Do you really want to know our struggle? Do you want to experience the lessons we experience in order to enjoy the rewards?
To send Jess to camp, it meant once again using any little money I earned to get her there. God sent an entire village of angles to get her there. Again, I remember the journey to camp clearly. I was rejected for my visa because I couldn't at the time show my ability to fund the trip. But I had time so they said come back closer to the trip and re-apply then. Weeks before the trip with barely enough to send Jess alone, we resigned to doing just that, putting my baby girl on a flight all by herself. I used my rent money to make the final bookings and then once again prayed and believed that the rent would be paid somehow. Can you imagine the mental stress? Can you really? Then the tears at the airport. Oh the tears. The feeling of failure. I couldn't find a way to get me on the plane and so I could only hug her and convince her that this journey would contribute to the character of a champion. You see, we sit and we judge. We place our situation so grim that we somehow believe that no one has it as bad as us and that no one else can imagine our struggles. We find comfort in our hurdles because they give us a reason for our circumstances. It's easier to find a reason to believe that the likes of Lara, Yorke, Walcott or Bravo attained success through opportunities that were never afforded to you. It is easier to chalk it up to luck. It is easier to compare their lives and conclude that your own was that much harder.
Let us count our blessings and use those to propel us to greater heights. Let us dream big at nights and then wake up and get to work.
Raising a champion isn't easy, but it will be worth it.
And yes, we all can't raise Olympic athletes but we can all raise greatness.
We can all aim to unveil the very best human being wrapped up inside the souls of our children.
Our job as parents is to bring out nothing but the very best in our children. To believe in a life that is impossible and to afford them every opportunity to grown in the character needed to make it possible.
If each of us will commit to that as parents, then we will wake up to a generation of greatness and to a country filled with champions.
Disclaimer - This article was originally published under the CARE umbrella - Guardian Media Limited. Be sure to look out for more articles every Wednesday in the Guardian Newspaper
