Did they bury you like a casket or plant you like a seed?
Good news: you get to decide.
High School Volleyball. Man, from the ages of 10-18, I thought winning the State Championship would grant me all I would have ever wanted. My freshman year I was unaware of the level of commitment it took. Sophomore year my commitment came from the bench with an injury watching my team at state. Junior year we ended our season after a 14-16 fifth set loss coming back from being down 7-13. Senior year though, we ended our season at the conference championship, 4 games shy of the sub-state championship, the one that really mattered when it came to the ultimate goal.
Senior year we all silently decided, after that horrific loss the year before, we wouldn’t feel that ever again. We did pretty good at it too going undefeated. Well, until that conference championship. I can still remember key plays of the game, especially the last one, when Malcom scored their 16th point in the 5th set. If you know volleyball, that meant the score was 14-16.
Again.
Our spirits were defeated as the previous year’s loss resurfaced. We learned that night that we could, in fact, lose again. After that night, we no longer hated defeat, we feared it. And I can promise you, defeat can smell fear. I remember texting my best friend, fellow senior, and co-captain that night about these feelings, and I’m sure we didn’t want to bring them back to the court, but we did. So, when the next big game came, we were not mentally prepared, and it showed.
(we didn't make it to state if you were curious)
In life, there will be people who intentionally want to bury you, and also people who aren’t intentional about it, but do it anyways. It’s not your call to whether or not you get buried; we played so well against Malcolm, just not well enough. That game could’ve let it be the fertilizer we needed for the remaining year, but instead, that night was engraved on our gravestone.
Who has buried you? And are you still buried? Do the work, water that seed, and SPROUT!