Life After Volleyball

As you must have known in my previous blog entries,  My husband and  I have made my daughter Nicole stop doing volleyball. This was a major and well thought of decision for the whole family as we had to weigh down the pros and cons that might be affecting my daughter’s well being.

Nicole is  not only our only daughter, she is also our only child.  Parents like us can probably imagine our worries and fears  especially when we only have one shot at parenting and we believe we have to do this right.

Before we arrived at this decision, we asked our daughter about our plans to make her stop. She was not agreeable to this at first, but we noticed eventually, she saw  our perspective and eventually surprised us one day, when she told us, she wanted to give up volleyball  to get serious with her studies.

It was a very uncertain time for us right after she quit.   You see, our lives have been so attached to the routines of having a student athlete that it almost felt awkward not  to be doing it anymore.  AS what my closest friends told me, it wasn’t just Nicole who as adjusting, but us too as parents.

Everyday, we would be picking up Nicole late as she was training right after  her classes.   Her closest friends were her teammates so naturally, our closest friends in school too, were the parents of the  kids in volleyball. Weekends were  filled up with so many activities that involved  the team.   If there weree no usual trainings, we would get together and did  something outside of volleyball.   Most of the Moms were close to me, and we would all the time get updated on the going-on  of each other’s life.

Simply said, volleyball was not just a sport, but our life and our family.

I was worried that Nicole will be left without a friend.  I was worried she would become an  outcast.  I was worried she was going to be a nobody because she would lose her identity as a varsity  player.  I was worried that we may regret it in the future as  having a student athlete seemed like a cool idea.

However all my worries and fears didn’t happen.  In fact, I realized now, quitting volleyball was one of the bravest and wisest thing we have ever decided on as a family.

Today I have never seen Nicole so well rested and so happy as a child.   SHe used to be always in a hurry and always pressured with time.   Learning has taken a back seat because everything about school has been all bout compliance.  Today, I noticed that Nicole’s love for learning has come back. She is now fully interested on what is being taught in school and doesn’t jsut go about it to comply to the requirements. I now see her reading her books lazily and finding the time to relax and laugh and listen to good music.   Nicole eventually developed new friendships  with peopele  who may not be sporty, yet are also nice and well mannered kids.   The best thing is, she has kept her friendships with her volleyball teammates which makes it so much better since she has enlarged her circle and got to be with different kinds of people in schoo.

You see, I realized that there is life after volleyball.   When we as parents do not lose sight of what is important as a family and as parents, we will not have a hard time to make decisions.

Volleyball is just there whenever Nicky changes her mind and would want to go back.  But  am just happy that she gets to be a child again, playing with her toys, meeting new friends, having the luxury of time to do what she likes to do.

She lost all that for three years when she got so involved in sports.

As parents, we now appreciate the time we have to bond as a family.  We get to communicate more, talk more and influence our daughter better.  WE nolonger live a life as harried as before.

Whatever happens in the future, I cannot tell.  I am just glad it all turned out for the best.