Perseverance

Last week at our swim meet, Joshua was swimming really late in a Free Style Relay. He kept asking me if he could skip it. It was late and he was tired. But I put my coach's hat on, and explained how much the team needed him, it was just Free Style and he was first. He'd swim down the pool in less than a minute and be sitting back in his chair in no time. It was a little chaotic with all the 7 & 8 year old girls and boys getting ready for their relays, but we went over and got in our lane.

The coach starts going through the line-up and mistakenly sends us to the other side of the pool. There are a couple of boys named Joshua in this age bracket, so it's confusing. I thought this was an error but we took off, because the race in front of us was coming to an end! (If you've ever been at a swim meet, this happens..it's crazy, it's hot and it's quick!) We get settled in our lane on the other side, we're ready to go and then I hear someone yelling "Joshua Turner, Joshua Turner"! You guessed it…we were supposed to start at the other end. So off we go again running back to where we started. Funny moment here- Joshua didn't know the lady calling his name, so he hesitated before taking off with her back around the pool. As we're running, I'm yelling it's o-k…just go! I was glad to see him hesitate to go with a complete stranger.

For those of you still here, Joshua is 7, he's tired and we've lapped the pool once and haven't even hit the water yet. We get in line, then the coach says, "I need Joshua to swim the last leg of this relay also." At this point Joshua's adrenaline has kicked in from all the running, so I say what the heck, he'll do it. Joshua has never swam two legs of a relay, so I told him to just sit on the side of the pool when he finished the first lap and I would tell him when to go again. The relay starts and he takes off. I run through the crowd back to the other end of the pool to meet him.

As I'm making my way, he finishes, the second boy jumps in and takes off. I can see that Joshua is looking for me and starting to hop out. So I yell his name and in a weird twisted moment, all goes crazy. A little neighbor friend (about 10 years old) sees me coming and she's standing in front of Joshua. She begins to scream, "GO, GO JOSH, GO!" "YOU GOTTA GO BACK, GO, GO!" So he turns around and takes off back down the pool. To this day I have no idea of what she was thinking, but I was mad. Really mad. (Insert out-of body experience here. Not pretty, not good to share.)

Myself and two other adults tried to call him back. But he was off like a bullet, swimming faster than I've ever seen him swim. I could not move. I could not speak. I think I stopped breathing. I watched as he got out at the other end and the coaches tell him to run back to me. (Yes, we've lapped the pool so many times now, I can't keep count!) I hear the coaches yelling, "make room, let him through!" I start to realize he's gonna swim the last leg too, but he's getting lost in the crowd. So I do what any good, competitive, crazy Mom would do. I go get him, and basically throw him in as the third leg is finishing. And then I went nuts (or nuttier)…I'm thinking if we're doing this, we're doing it BIG! I began to make my way all the way down the side of the pool, cheering him on, yelling for him to go fast, telling him not to give up! He didn't, not even for a second. He swam like a crazy boy. The coaches are cheering, people in the crowd are cheering. It's an awesome moment. And here's how the "JOSH MAN" finished:

1^ST PLACE! Blue is a great color on him…don't you think? Good job, Josh.