I had a period of time through middle school especially
where self esteem was just extremely low.
Like, I’m on a travel basketball team
and I’m riding the bench at every tournament.
I’m just terrified of messing up.
I’m terrified of letting the guys down,
turning the ball over. Like,
I’m like, don’t pass me the ball,
cause I just don’t wanna like
mess anything up, you know,
I didn’t think I was as good at basketball this point in my life,
but I also was like, you know,
I was bringing something onto the court already.
That was. This is a life thing.
This is like totally. I don’t want to let my friends down, right?
These are like, they’re my teammates,
these are the people I. These are my friends.
I don’t want my friends down.
I don’t want to mess up here and be like,
I can’t be friends with them because I’m just not good enough.
I know my dad’s intention was always.
He just wanted me to go out there and like,
let it go and have fun. But when he was yelling at me from the stack,
there was is like,
this isn’t fun now. Like,
I don’t want to be out here.
I can’t do the thing that I feel safe doing,
which is get rid of the ball
because my dad’s yelling at me to do something.
Yeah, I’m just in a straight up fight or flight anxious place.
Let’s forget the Sports for a second. Yeah.
Let’s get to the root of the life stuff and, like,
let’s connect and do things that are going to,
you know, cultivate connection between us.
Yeah. And give,
like, us that relationship so that I am on the same page with you
if I go back to that place
or if I’m now switching places with my dad.
I think it’s more about the connection of just the life stuff.
Totally. How can I connect better on the life stuff
to understand what’s happening in a middle schooler’s life?
That’s what I’m saying.