Basketball Support

Jacob and his team from school played in a basketball tournament today at St. Thomas High School. It was fun to watch him in action. I had never seen him play basketball before. We watched 3 games and in the 4th game the coach decided to play her "power wall" all game and this did not include Jacob. So that took the steam out of his sails - he realized he was not one of the best players on the team. Thinking this and being told this are two different things and now he has no plans for playing next year. That one game has discourage him from trying out again. Isn't competitive game playing wonderful? What are we teaching our kids? I tried telling him that it wasn't right, that it wasn't the way elementary basketball should be played, it should be fair and rotate every kid so everyone plays and has fun. But Jacob is not a competitive soul and as soon as it turned into that it wasn't fun anymore. Now Jason is like is as well. Me, I am as competitve as one gets which is not a good thing. And I do not let Jacob see that side of me. I want him to have fun and not be trying to win all the time. I just want him to play his best which he did today so I was happy. He was happy too until that last game. Life is not about winning, it is about playing.
Jason and I had a good conversation last night about the Jason you all remember and the Jason that was born on June 23rd of last year. Their kind souls are the same. Their love of sarcasm is equal. But that mouthy Jason comes in short stints and more at home than out in public. I have seen bits of the personality I once knew shine through but it is an adjustment and will be for those who knew him before last June. We talked about that and Jason knows he is different in that way. Now he doesn't think he was personality plus like I think he was but that's ok because that part of Jason is the same - he will never toot his own horn. So I will toot for him! His intelligence has always blown me away and sometimes he doubts that it is there. But it is. I see it all the time. He has no idea how smart he is even though they told him after testing him at rehab. Just because he forgets how to cook something does not indicate lack of intelligence. I heard him explaining the metric system to Jacob the other day and I thought "Good, one less thing I have to answer!". ha
The conversations we have alone now are more in depth and interesting. I had missed those talks and I am so happy they are more frequent now. I missed that side of our lives and now that I see it coming back I know the possiblities for the future are endless. As I see Jason's brain make the reconnections I am even more interested in neurological science. Maybe a new job direction for me - who knows?