Skipping Through a Basketball Season

Kevin's first try at basketball has came to an end today. The season was an eye opener for me. My sensitive, sometimes less than enthusiastic child really showed some color on the BB court. He was "tenacious" as his coach has called him, a go-getter on defense. Kev would say his favorite part of the game is pulling off all those picks. And his glory moment played out at the end of the season when he nabbed a rebound and dribbled it down the court for a layup.

Another eye opening experience was watching him, should we say bound up and down the court. Maybe prance would be a better word to describe his skipping to his position when the pressure was off during game play. Although not the coolest of styles, his skipping showed me he was happy to be in that place at that time. To me being more in his place than the best or coolest of players.

A good friend of mine was watching his style with me today and said he reminded her of the "nerd" in the movie the Breakfast Club. No offense taken at the comment, it was said by someone who loves the boy. Funny that she mentioned it, because the other day at bed time we had a conversation about being a nerd...

Connor had made a comment about Kevin being cool and I brought it to his attention. Kevin answered without much emotion "I'm not cool."

I was a little confused about this turn down of an infrequent complement from his brother,so I countered jokingly with "Well then are you a nerd?"

He looked up and answered reassuringly, "No I'm medium."

I like medium!

For Kevin I would say being medium means being self confident, being himself, and maybe being a little different than other 5th grade boys, or is it just innocence and a big heart? The great thing is that other kids and adults like Kevin, and like him for who he truly is. My wish for him is that he stay medium and continue to skip though life, happy to be where he is and enjoying what he is doing just like on that BB court this season.