GOOD THING

I'm not much of a skater. Otherwise, I might just try it.

You see some things intrigue me and some don't. Working up to my capabilities in school never really did. As I've shared before with faithful reader(s), that was the comment on 3-5 grade school report cards that I got. It usually got me in trouble at home, but it did nothing to inspire me to be more industrious. If anything, it made me try less.

I mean if I definitely could do better if I tried harder and applied myself (that might have been written on a few grade cards, too) then why should I? When I had to, I could. If I didn't want to, then there was always the "I could if I wanted to" to fall back on.

The same thing happened to me in 4th grade basketball. The coach came to me and told me he wanted to put me on the team composed of only 5th and 6th graders, but there was one 6th grader that he was going to put on the team instead of me. He even told me who it was. Coach Ellis said I would be on the team the next two years and get to play a lot, so he was going with the older guy in his last year. That was ok with me.

But I quit working hard in basketball practice, made the team but played very little. Something about my lack of discipline and motivation.

I don't know if it would have made any difference had he told me I probably wouldn't make the team my 5th grade year. I might just have accepted it and gone another route. That's just the way I was. (I wanted so bad to put a slash after was and add is.) It's just hard to say.

The only thing I can recall is a Research 500 class that I had in college. We started the class with 28 and finished with 14. It was one tough class, but I was determined to get an A because it was difficult. Other times, I might have been one of those who dropped.

Motivation and apathy are pretty closely related as far as my history goes. But had someone told me I couldn't skate in a buffalo herd, I would probably have tried it. Just to show them I could.