My Perfect number 10

This year promises to be a watershed year in our lives. Husband celebrates his 50th, we celebrate 25 years of marriage that has been mostly blissfull and our youngest goes of to college. All very exciting but somewhere there is a yearning for the happy, young carefree days, of holding newborns and watching them take their first steps. Children keep you young but also age you prematurely. Many a night has been spent in wonderment over the first tooth and so many more waiting for them to come home from wherever their adventures with the car keys lead them. Today my daughter plays her last game of Varsity basketball for her school. What an amazing journey it has been from the first day she picked up a basketball at 12 to tonight when she closes out her last game as a senior. Basketball has just not been about ball handling and making shots, for us it has taught her the most important life skill of all- how to be one with a team. Many of our Indian friends back home and some here too wonder why is it that we are so crazy about our daughter playing a sport- afterall we live in the silicon valley and her time would have been better spent interning at the many tech companies which dot our area. To them I say come watch our daughter: see her play, interact with her peers, her team mates, her coach, her amazing sense of self-worth and confidence. I think it is Basketball which has provided it all. We cannot believe this is the same little 5 year old who had to be literrally dragged across the soccer field kicking and screaming for her first soccer practice. The first few days were an excercise in patience not just from us but from her amazing first coach, Tom. He dealt with a painfully shy,sobbing little girl suffering with separation anxiety and converted her into one of his star players who contributed to winning many a championship. He will be ther tonight to see the transformation he helped start. In time Kobe Bryant took over and her life was one basketball obsessed moment after another. If not practicing , she would be playing or flopped over on the couch watching one rerun of old games after another. The road has not been easy- Being cut, benched, not played enough, injuries but she has learned to take them in her stride, showing far more composure than her parents. Her coach has been her mentor, friend and guide. His mantra- Student-Athlete has stood her and her team mates well for all us senior parents can proudly claim that not only our daughters have excelled in the sports field but multiple colleges have come calling. Thank you Keith Ramee. But really, its not all about her. I will miss all the cool baadass moms who have screamed, cheered and clapped along with me and I can attest that there can be no better cheerleaders than us. Sure we don't do all the gymnastics but we do put up a show. I like to think the cops are there for us- to keep us in line and many a time all of us nurturing types have been nearly booted out. Remember the movie, Brave? Never mess with a Mama Bear or in our case Mama Eagle! So go out there Number 10 and play your perfect game! You've made us proud beyond imagination and we cannot wait to see where you go from here.