My, how time flies...

A group of our athletes (Lanier Canoe and Kayak) have traveled north to the beautiful little nook of Lake Placid this week for a week of training and an international regatta. I just traveled over to the regatta website and was swept with how quickly time flies and the many changes that come in our lives in a relatively short period of time.

My son Steven paddled for roughly six years, and had lots of fun, good training, and made many good friends and memories. He always says the first trip we took to Lake Placid was the best trip he ever took as part of the team. That was 7 years ago, which is really hard to believe as I sit here this morning.

Steven was never really that good at racing....he just was never one of those "natural" athletes, the type who can do anything well. But he really enjoyed the other guys on the team. He got to train and compete at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, and he learned to play poker from the older guys who had actually been to the Olympics. It was really neat to see the relationships, and the thought of my little boy playing poker with these guys still makes me laugh. Lots of down time during those regattas.

Five years ago, Steven brought his ankle during an incident of horseplay at the boathouse. It was bad. It had to be screwed together.....it was devastating. To make a long story short, he was never able to get back to the level he had achieved. The mental part of it was something we just didn't know how to deal with. As a mom, it was difficult to watch. He had worked so hard...

I made him stay on the team for the better part of the year after that. I really regret that. He would go to early morning practice and sleep in his car. This wasn't a good time for us. It wasn't his fault though. I didn't want him to quit because of the good things it had done for him physically, but I'm here to tell you that you can't force a young man to train if he doesn't want to. I feel terrible looking back that I tried to force him to paddle.

Finally, his coach got him to come to me and tell me that I was making him do something for me, not for him.That was a tough moment, but I know that it had to be really, really difficult for him. We both cried, as I remember. It was then that I realized he really was done with it, and I needed to find a new relationship with the club.

So,  the Kayak Mom was born. And Steven? He is on to bigger and better things....