Bright and early, I wake up on Friday to my mom reading an email my soccer team got from Shaun, our soccer coach. “Dear Freedom,
After the Regional Playoffs are over in Delaware this Sunday, you will have a game that night at 5:45.
From,
Shaun”
On a normal day this is not a big deal, we play three games a weekend. But this weekend is Mother’s Day, and I was expecting to be able to play soccer in the morning and have dinner with my mom and grandparents that night to celebrate. But now I can’t do that easily. By tomorrow I have to choose between going to my soccer game, or going out to dinner with my mom.
The first emotion that hit me was rage. What kind of heartless person schedules two games far away on Mother’s Day? Not all of our mother’s live in England like his! How could he force everyone on the team to make this decision?
Many might think I’m a terrible daughter for even having to think about this decision. Whoever thinks that, doesn’t know my coach very well. His name is Shaun, but we nicknamed him Satan and El Diablo for a reason. Everyone that plays competitive soccer knows of him as the crazy coach who screams and curses all the time. Therefore, if I miss this game, it could lead to hours of running, yelling and cursing for the rest of our team. Also, this upcoming game is a huge game, if I miss it I would be letting down my teammates. But on the other hand, I owe my mom everything. She sacrifices so much for soccer and the least I could do is find a way to skip a game so I can spend time with her. This calls for me to ask my dad.
As I pull my dad to the side, he already starts to talk to me, “Danielle, I know what you’re going to say, and it’s really not that big of a deal. Your mom will be supportive of whatever you choose. I think you should just do whatever you want.” Well, that was helpful.
Okay, so I’m back at square one, with no progress made whatsoever. Let’s say I decide to skip the game, how would I do it? Like I said before, Satan is crazy. I can’t just say ‘I can’t make it’. I basically need to fully explain a reason as to why I can’t make the game. I can’t say I’m sick, because if I play in regionals that morning, then I can’t all of a sudden get sick. I can’t also just say ‘It’s Mother’s Day I can’t come’, because it’s everyone else’s Mother Day and that’s not a valid excuse. On the other hand, if I decided to go to the game, how could I possibly tell my mom and my grandparents that I won’t be with them. I would feel awful. Regardless of how many times they say it’s okay, I still wouldn’t be able to focus the whole game. All day in school I was been contemplating my decision. It’s tricky and complicated. I feel trapped.
Saturday morning, time to decide. I hate this. I don’t know what to do. It’s choosing between a commitment I made to my teammates, or celebrating Mother’s Day. Either way someone gets hurt. I wish it was an easy decision. It should be.
But wait, this is my family. They’ve sacrificed their weekends, nights and summer in order to drive me to soccer. I owe them Sunday. I owe them Mother’s Day. My mind's made up. I don’t care about Satan. This is all his fault. Who schedules two games on Mother’s Day anyway? As much as I care about my team, my family is so much more important to me.
As I go up to my mom to tell her the news, and how excited I am to go to dinner, she stops me.
“Danielle, remember how I told you you have a game tomorrow? Well, I figured the whole family will want to go to your game, so I just moved the reservation back to 7:30! And it’s only fifteen minutes away from the field.”
“Wait, so I can go to both?”
“Yeah, Obviously” She says as she walks up the stairs, as if news she just told me wasn’t a huge deal.
That night, we ended up winning the game easily. And everyone’s moms were there to cheer us on. Then we met our grandparents and the restaurant and had a great time. I guess my dad was right, it wasn’t a big deal.