Lessons Learned From a Small School

 

Chapter Three: Write a narrative from your school experience that encapsulates an important lesson you and perhaps others were able to learn. How did/has this experience shape(d) you?

     
         I went to a very small country school called Lee Jr. High School. Our motto was "Little but Proud". I started playing softball in the 6th grade. I was so proud to be a Lee Rocket! Our school was very poor, so we could not afford uniforms or safety equipment. I played catcher, so safety equipment would have been real nice. I once asked my Coach, why I didn’t I have all the safety gear the other catchers had. I will never forget his response. He leaned down and whispered, “Lori Anne, you don’t need that stuff, you are tough enough”. 

        
          The comment has stuck with me throughout my life, and whenever I was facing some real hard areas in life, and I would wonder “Why me?” I would hear my coach’s voice saying, “Lori Anne you are tough enough.” Those simple words whispered to a child in order to shield me from knowing that we simply could not afford fancy equipment, yet building me up to keep going, gave me strength in other areas of my life. We were a small group of kids in a poor community, but we played our hearts out, we rarely won a game, but I don’t ever remember not having fun. We did it for the love of the game and the fun of playing it. In the end we were all tough enough and we were winners!