It all started with this board.
This is the board that hangs on the gym wall at school. There's several of them that list the school's top acheivements and records for athletic things like Flex Arm Hang, Pull Ups, Mile, 50 Yard Dash, etc.
Most of us would take a glance and think "That's cool" and never give it a second thought.
But my oldest creature, my Overachieving Neat Freak, looked at it and saw a chance to....you guessed it....overachieve!
He was determined to "get on the board" which meant he had to get at least 98 seconds in the flex arm hang. If you haven't tried a flex arm hang in a while, I wouldn't recommend it. You have to pull yourself up on a bar then hold yourself up there, with your chin above the bar, as long as you possibly can. This is what elementary school students are subjected to now in our public schools. Just a little shy of torture if you ask my opinion.
Back to the story....Overachiever began skipping every recess and practicing his arm hang in the gym instead. His faithful sidekick would go with him and run the stopwatch. He would come home every day and as soon as he walked in the door he'd announce "Guess how much I got today?". I'll be honest, it wasn't very promising in those early days. He started off in the 20's....then slowly moved up to the 30 and 40 second range.
He never lost the vision.
When he started hitting the 70 and 80 second mark the vision became a little more intense. The record was 140 seconds...Overachiever began craving 141 seconds.
After more than 5 months of practice and skipping the social event of the day (recess), the time had come.
The clock was ticking....
He had a goal....he worked hard...he sweated....he smelled really bad when he got home from school!
When he hit the 100 second mark the kids started to cheer.....mom & dad just got more nervous...he was soooo close:)
The gym teacher started the updates...120...130...140...145....150....160....
166 SECONDS!!
He did it!! He was exhausted....he was sweaty...he was proud!
Of course it's really cool that he broke a record, but what we were more proud of is the fact that he he was willing to work so hard and sacrifice to achieve it. It didn't come easy but he never gave up. Hopefully that tenacity will carry thru in his life to more than gym class!
They'll be a new name on that board soon....at the very TOP!
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6 comments:
That's awesome!!! Tell Overachiever I said congrats! Interesting sidenote: I was in class with David Singer, one of the record holders from 1994-1995. Weird huh?
Sweet! The whole family has always said those kids are all destined to do great things. Way to go L-Dog.
What a cool post! Congratulations to him for working so hard and attaining his goal as a result =) What a blessing to be so ambitious!
You guys must be so proud! Hayden thought it was really cool! Tell him we said congratulations! Hard work definitely pays off!
Wow! And Woot!
That's awesome! I know it's an older post but over-achiever is my middle name, I had to come have a look! Gotta love boys eh?
Jessie at Blog Schmog
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