I know I blogged last week (or was it the week before???) about my son getting his driver’s license. Well, this past weekend, he actually drove himself to a local tournament – no mom, no dad, no coach, no backup.
Yes, I was a bit nervous letting him get himself to his warmup and then his first match. I worried that he would get lost. I worried that he would forget to pack something important, like his racquets or his cooler. I worried that he wouldn’t leave himself enough time and would be late. As usual, all my worrying was a complete waste of energy on my part!
On the first day of the tournament, my husband and I took our own car to the site to watch our son play. My husband wound up leaving after the match – a tough loss – and I stayed with my son to watch a friend of his play. On the second day – Sunday- I wasn’t feeling well, so my husband and I stayed home and let our son be 100% on his own. He got himself up for an early warm-up, fixed himself breakfast, packed his gear, and headed out the door and down the driveway. He ran into a small glitch when the gym where he normally stretches and warms up was closed, but he adapted just fine and took his foam roller to the courts to stretch there.
If all went well, he was scheduled to play three backdraw matches that day starting at 9am. He texted us after his first match to let us know he had won and would be playing again at noon. He asked if he could drive himself to the local Subway to get some lunch – of course, we said okay. After the noon match, he texted again to let us know he had won, but he quickly followed up the text with a phone call. He was out of water, out of Pedialyte, and out of chocolate milk and had very little time to stretch and restock before his final match. He asked if one of us would mind making the 20 minute drive to bring him what he needed. I packed up a cooler with the requested items and sent my husband on his way. We talked about going to watch his backdraw final but decided it would be better to let our son finish out the day on his own.
Turns out he had to play the same kid in the backdraw final to whom he had lost in the main draw. It was a great opportunity to avenge the loss from the day before. And, avenge he did! My son wound up winning the backdraw 6-1, 4-6, 10-7, a very rewarding end to a quick but action-packed tourney weekend. I told him that maybe driving himself to the tourney is the new good-luck charm!
I hope that’s not the case. I hope we have a lot more opportunities to drive TOGETHER to his tournaments. Some of our best talks happen on those drives, and some of my best music education happens, too – who knew I would end up liking Kid Cudi and Tech N9ne so much?!?!?
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