The Game is Not Over

Monday afternoon I went to photograph our middle school basketball teams at a home game.  I did what I often do when there are back to back games.  I got there for the second half of the girls game and stayed through the first half of the boys game.  At half time of the boys game, I often decide whether or not I will stay based on the score.  If we are really far ahead or behind, I usually make the decision to go home and eat dinner.  When I left this game, we were far enough behind that I believed I wouldn't miss any dramatic moments.

I was wrong.

The next morning, I see a video posted on Twitter from the last seconds of the game.  During the last few minutes, our boys had mounted a comeback and achieved a 42-42 tie.  In the last second, this seventh grader, figuring there was nothing to lose by shooting chucked the ball from almost half a court away.  In the video, it doesn't even look like the ball is heading in the right direction until - swish - it dropped right in the basket.  The place went nuts.  Our varsity team was there to see it.  The kid was a hero.  It was simply an amazing moment.  I missed it because I thought I knew what was going to happen.

We all experience situations in our lives in which we believe we know what is going to happen. If we envision a negative result, we sometimes give up.  It is certainly easier to quit a job that stick with one through a difficult time.  It seems easier to quit a relationship that is going through a difficult time than it would be to see it through.  The problem with that logic is that when you bail out, you never experience the comeback.

If our boys had gone into the locker room at half time and taken a vote to go home because they were losing, it certainly would have been easier.  They would have gone home, had dinner, listened to their moms tell them that they were special anyway.  It would have been easier, but it would not have been better.  There would be no video on Twitter.  There would been no crowd cheering.  There would have been no hero moment.  There isn't a hero until a situation arises that requires a hero.

Instead, those boys went into the locker room and decided to turn things around.  This wasn't easy.  They had to overcome the momentum already established by the other team.  They had to increase their defense and their offense at the same time.  They had to overcome their own psychology from being behind the first half.  The kid who made that last shot knew it might not go in, and he had to be okay with that.  None of this was easy.  

Recognizing that the game is not over is an important life skill.  Starting the year with a bad grade doesn't mean you will end the year with one.  Starting the year with a badly behaved class doesn't mean you have give up and keep it that way.  Turning it around isn't easy, but it is the only way to win.  Nothing worth having is easy.