Season Opener

One of the nicest things about our school is that many of JT’s friends began there when they were little boys.  JT and his fellow wrestler E became friends when they were four years old.  They’ve grown up together and their friendship is something they both value.  There’s something sweet about watching boys who once played in the sandbox together as they are now captains of their wrestling team.  It’s a sport that they both love. Their final wrestling season began on Monday and, as I often do, I sat in the bleachers with E’s mom, TS, who, like me, sometimes wonders how it was she became the mama of a wrestler.  

She and I are both moms of singletons, both women who waited to have children and now are thinking about all the changes that are coming to our world as we launch these boys into the world.  We talked before the match began and discovered that we are both treating this Senior year a year to live in the moment; to enjoy every minute of time these boys of ours are still living at home.

Then the wrestling began and we watched one another’s boys wrest out a victory after 6 long minutes on the mat.  They were hard-fought wins and we cheered the whole of the time.  It was exhausting to watch; it seemed like the seconds were ticking by extra slowly.  When it was over, TS looked at me and said, “maybe living in the moment is overrated.”

I laughed and in that second agreed. But I will be at every wrestling match that will have me, cheering like a lunatic and shouting things like, “hold him down” and “stuff the head!” as if I am bloodthirsty.  Because it’s wrestling and that’s what we do.