Yesterday I participated in Sydney’s annual MS Gong ride, and one of my friends Sharlene who I rode with, has written a fabulous blog post about why she’s going to stop apologising for being slow. It resonates so strongly with me because Sharlene and I have much in common. Like Sharlene, I avoided sport in my teenage years and have been putting myself down about it ever since. Rather than write my own version I’m sharing Sharlene’s excellent blog post with you. You can read some of her other great posts here.
Over to you, Sharlene…….
Of all her children, my mother tells me, I’m the last one she expected to be fitness mad. And fair enough. As a teenager, I was the least sporty of the lot of us. My parents and all my siblings played hockey competitively. I debated and acted and did things like come first in class.
The last time I played hockey I was 16. That was back in the old days when hockey was still played on a bumpy field of barely mown grass. Some revolting girl from Amanzimtoti High School launched, deliberately I maintain, a vigorously hit ball that landed squarely above my shin-pads. I hobbled off the field that day, handed my father my hockey stick and said, “I’m never playing hockey again”. I probably broke his heart….
