If I May, a Repost- To All the Age Outs (from 2012)

[dapperpoet]

Six years ago we sat high up in Atlanta. You were a high school sophomore. I said to you, “You know, you could do this next year.”
Since then and tonight there have been tens of thousands of miles, hundreds of rehearsals, football fields from California, to Minnesota to Boston to San Antonio. You played finals your first year two blocks from your house in Bloomington.
Tonight, after kissing your head and telling you how proud I am and how much I love you, I want to say that you have already done so much more than lots of those kids sitting through their senior years with you this fall at Auburn have done. You know how to keep your mouth shut and do what is necessary, not what you want to do all the time. You know how to work and work to get better when you knew from the first camp there was no chance of even being a finalist. You know how to finish a show at midnight, catch a few hours of bad sleep on a bus, and greet another morning and a 40 pound contra with a smile. Heat sirens in San Antonio. Crackers and pudding for supper. Rehearsal in pouring rain. The humidity of Monroe, Louisiana. You learned that sometimes it’s not the leaders of an organization that you kill yourself for, it’s the kid in the next bus seat.
Finally, tonight, you know excellence and being within touching distance of perfection. You know what it is to rise to the highest levels of an activity and be humble. And talk about getting better tomorrow. You know how to be in first place at semi-finals after an undefeated season and say to me, “Wow, that was a rough run tonight. Gotta get better tomorrow.”
Your first year at Spirit it was 110 degrees with the heat index. You were 16 and away from home for the first time. The lights in the gym would not turn off at night. The air conditioning in the school worked sporadically. You hurt your back. You had every reason to quit, but you didn’t. Every one of those beautiful tan faces of all the kids in all the corps tonight could tell a similar story. As you said, at sixteen, “There comes a time when some people stand up and some people quit. I didn’t quit.”
Many, many people never learn that lesson in a lifetime.

Please remember on the blue days to come (we all have them) that you are a champion, that you not only know what excellence is, you have achieved it. That you made yourself the incredible person you are because you tried to make each run through better, each performance the best.
I love you Thomas.

(Thomas has since graduated from Auburn, and has just this week accepted a job as an elementary music teacher in Texas)

[RickCogley]

A great post.

[mjyaub]

War Eagle!