Fundamentals

The big sign at the entrance to the small town read, “Baseball Champs of Iowa.” It overshadowed the other, less important signs for the lumber yard, the church and the Elks Club. It spoke of our town’s identity, pride, and reason for being. 

It was among this fierce sense of individualism, where I grew up believing everything depended on me and me alone. It was a place full of high expectations supported by an equally strong work ethic which enabled us to run faster, jump higher, and throw farther. It’s an early bird catches the worm, kinda place. 

Endless hours of practice were devoted to athletic pursuits because you had to have the fundamentals down in order to play. It taught us discipline. How others depended on you to do your part and do it well. And in my town of barely 500 people, that meant we all had multiple roles to play. Everyone had to be excellent in their own right in order to be part of the team.  

Those formative years, filled with competition and achievement set me up to seek out higher ambitions as Title Nine now recognized women as equals in sport. Life was good. I was off to college, the first in my family to seek out a higher education…and best of all, I’d be playing sports. 

In college sports you have to be really special to stand out among every other special athlete on the team. Trouble is, I’m incredibly average. Average height, average weight, average smarts. Average doesn’t get scholarships and come to find out, Average needs the help of others. 

I’d never been around such a collection of high-caliber talent in my life. While fun, it was also intimidating for this small-town girl to shoot free-throws or take infield with these amazingly talented athletes assembled from all over the world. Part of me was thrilled to have found such a place of belonging, but another part of me wondered if I had made a huge mistake. Or had I? 

Turns out, strong fundamentals will serve you well, but it’s generosity of spirit that’s the special sauce. It’s by helping others, and in turn asking for their help where I discovered an ability to connect and adapt, to give freely of myself in order to achive commom goals. I found that I can play with the best after all, by adopting a more generous mindset.  

Unfortunately, sometimes even in spite of all the grit and determination, average still loses out. I never did make sports history. I went on to graduate and realized the things I’d learned through sports, would serve me well. Throughout my life I’ve made it a point to learn the basics, the fundamentals of whatever I pursue in order to better understand the whole. And part of the fundamentals for me was learning generosity. 

Coming back to the fundamentals is like coming home again to that small, proud town.