We All Needed Time To Recover...

It's been several days since I posted - a result of the recovery period I needed from the weekend.

Cameron participated in the EOWL (Eastern Ohio Wrestling League) championships - a marathon event that began Friday night.

He was pretty confident, as were all his coaches, that he would be wrestling into the finals on Saturday. He had pinned most of his last 12 opponents in less than a minute - he was seeded third or fourth for this event.

He soon discovered that pinning your opponents quickly is not necessarily a good thing when you then go up against the guys that have been doing this for years.

Experience prevailed...he finished fifth (out of 14). Granted, he was never pinned and only lost two matches out of six - both times by only two points! A valiant and respectable effort for a kid who's only been wrestling two years.

But our son is very hard on himself - both losses resulted in at least 20 minutes of recovery time on his part - sitting as far away from everyone as possible, with his head hanging, not daring to look up.

After a respectful waiting period, I approached him after the second loss. Looking up at my big, strong teenager and telling him how incredibly proud his father and I were - tears began pouring down his face and dripping from the tip of his nose. If he wasn't so big and strong (and in public), I'm sure he would have fallen into my arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Alas - he just kept looking down, nodding his head.

I think he heard me though. Within five minutes of returning to my seat - he was back with his team, smiling and cheering his team-mates on.

In time, he'll work through his losses on his own - but I know he'll always remember the day he was able to cry with is Mum - and it helped make everything right in his world!