oh well.
wanted to come online to post an entry about "nobody is alone" yet i feel so lonely now.
sigh.

what is life?
define it.
what is friendship?
define it.
what is scholarship?
define it.
what is play?
define it.
what is freedom?
define it.
what is restriction?
define it.
//


My name is Joey. When i was born, my feet were twisted upward with the bottoms resting on my tummy. My mother thought this looked odd, but didn't really know what it meant. It meant that I had been born with club feet. The doctors assured my parents that wth treatment I would be able to walk normally, but would probably never run very well. The first three years of my life, I spent in the surgery, casts and braces. My legs were massaged, worked and exercised, yes, by the time I was seven or eight, you wouldn't even know I'd a problem if you watched me walk.

If I walked great distances, like at the amusement park or on a visit to zoo, I remember complaining that my legs were tired and that I hurt. We would stop walking, take a break with a soda or ice-cream cone and talk about what we had seen and what we had to see. My parents didn't tell me why my legs hurt and why they were weak. They didn't tell me this was expected due to my deformity at birth. They didn't tell me, so I didn't know.

The children in our neighbourhood ran around as most children do during play. I would watch them play and, of course, jump right in and run mre than any of the others. Perhaps I sensed that the abilities that seemed to come naturally to so many others did not come naturally to me. My parents didn't tell me that although I could run, I probably wouldn always remain in the back of the pack. They didn't tell me that I shouldn't expect to make it to the "team". The team runners are the top seven runners of the school. Although the entire team runs, it is only those seven who will have potential to score points for the school. My dream was to be one of the seven in the team. My parents didn't tell me I probably would never makes the "team", so I didn't know.

I continued to run four to five miles a day. Two weeks later, the day before the second to the last race of the season, the names of the "team" runners were called. I was number 6 on list. I had made the team! I was 13 years old. The other six team members were all older than me. My parents never told me I probably shouldn't expect to make the "team". They never told me I couldn't do it... so I didn't know.

I just did it.

Adapted from "We Never Told Him He Couldn't Do It" in a 3rd Serving of Cicken Soup for the the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.