PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Time To Soar
I don’t remember having National College Declaration Day when I headed off to school. Is all the attention on this choice a good thing? I’m not sure, because it’s already a stressful time for seniors. There’s a ton of pressure to make the perfect decision on a school to attend, during a time when they are smack in the middle of taking AP tests, finals and applying for scholarships.
I know, because my daughter has been going through this over the last few months and it has been stressful. Her original college choice ended up being WAY too expensive. It had been our understanding that with merit aid, etc, the cost would be close to the University of Washington, it was not. Even with scholarships she was looking at paying $51,000 a year. We couldn’t, and wouldn’t, pay $240,000 for four years of college. We explained to her that she could buy a house with the money. And so she had to change gears which made it a little difficult at first, because in her mind, everything seemed to pale in comparison.
Some might say, that you get what you pay for. But I knew that there were other schools where my daughter could get a great education and not be burdened with huge loans after she graduated, especially since she wants to travel when she is done. So she narrowed it down to three small colleges (one of her requirements), where she could study Creative Writing and Chinese and play basketball, and then made a final decision this week.
Breathe.
I know she’s nervous, it’s a huge change, heading off to college and stepping out into this great big world on her own. But I also know that even if she has doubts and fears about this new chapter […]
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Take Pride
My full-time job is being a mom. Raising kids is such an honor and most of the time I love it, but sometimes I feel like I’m going CRAZY! It’s hard work (not to mention that you don’t get a lot of credit for being a mom). It’s morning until night, constant, from the first years when you’re nursing and changing diapers until the days when you’re getting ready to send kids off to college.
My kids are both in high school now and my duties today include; packing lunches (I know I don’t HAVE to do this, but I want to. They do get their own breakfasts), doing laundry, ironing my daughter’s dress to wear when she performs in a talent show tonight, walking the dogs (also mom duty), picking up my son’s computer and dropping money off for his summer basketball camp, getting the oil changed in the Jeep, going for a run (probably not gonna happen), picking up a boom stand for the talent show, doing dishes, taking out recycle and cleaning the house for company this weekend, working on my novel and my upcoming speech (definitely not gonna happen), mailing a scholarship application for my daughter, cheering my daughter on at her softball game, figuring out how to get her some dinner as she runs to talent show rehearsal and then figure out dinner for in-laws and my son (most likely gonna order Thai food) and then, go to sleep and start again tomorrow.
That’s being a mom and I wouldn’t change it for the world. But it’s also hard to keep it all together and not totally lose yourself. For me, my kids come first, but sometimes I just want to scream, “What about me?” […]
Monday’s Pen to Paper: Perfect Input
I just sent in ten pages of my Young Adult Novel to my instructor to be critiqued. I’ve been taking a year-long course from her at the Hugo House and I’m looking forward to her critique. My book is slowly coming together and with time it will get there, and I truly respect her input.
Though it’s not alway easy to hear input on your work, it can help to move it forward. And depending on where the input comes from, you may need to just nod and smile and in the end, do your own thing. For me when advice came from my 15-year-old son, I tried not to be defensive (he didn’t give his opinion thoughtfully, he just gave it) but I listened, because he is my audience. “Why wouldn’t the cars work? Wouldn’t they just barricade themselves in the house and live there? That’s what I would do. What about a gun? Why not a bike?” He had a lot of ideas and opinions, both good and bad, and so I did my best to take it all in. In fact, because of his input I now have some new ideas that I think will make the story better.
Be open to input, but in the end go with your gut, to make your story come alive.
WRITING PROMPT: Garth set my first chapter down and laughed out loud…
Monday’s Pen to Paper: New Inspiration
My daughter has been working on writing a novel for a while. I often joke with her that her book will get published before mine. (Though with her work ethic and love of writing it may actually end up being true.) She is a senior in high school and will be graduating soon, so she’s busy with school and sports and activities, which has cut into her writing time, but over Easter weekend my brother was in town and with him he brought inspiration.
Not the Godly kind that one might expect at Easter, but quite the opposite. My brother is a former Army Airborne Ranger and my daughter is working on a young adult dystopian novel, so she was looking for information on guns and knives and warfare. Not only did my brother have plenty of information to give her (and a fully loaded survival pack ready to show her), he has the love of world building and developing ideas.
When my brother and I were kids we never missed an episode of Twilight Zone or Creature Future or any futuristic TV show that we could find on our 3 Channels in Montana and we loved to build forts in the fields near our home and dream up different lives. Yes, he could imagine the world his niece was working to share and the story that went with it. They talked for hours.
The next morning I found my daughter tapping away at her keyboard, scribbled notes by her side.
Share your work with others and you never know what kind of inspiration you may find…
WRITING PROMPT #1: Who might inspire your writing. Why? Take the opportunity to contact them.
WRITING PROMPT #2: Tara and her little brother Wes would survive but it wouldn’t be easy in today’s […]
Meet Sonya
Meet Sonya
Sonya Elliott’s memoir, Back on the Court: A Young Woman’s Triumphant Return to Life, Love & Basketball, is her story of finding hope in the wake of tragedy after she and her fiancé were hit by a train. She blogs about writing, basketball, and life and is currently working on a Young Adult Novel and a Non-Fiction Coaching book. Stories of her career as a fashion model are woven through her memoir, as both the Soloflex and Easy Spirit Shoes commercials were filmed during that time period, and this unique and intriguing business continues to be a part of her life.
Sonya played basketball at Eastern Washington University and was a starter for the Big Sky Champion team that went to the 1987 NCAA tournament. She coached for almost 25 years and was voted Seattle Times Coach of the Year, Seattle Officials Women’s Basketball Association Coach of the Year, and twice voted Metro League Coach of the Year. She loves the game of basketball and is thankful, not only for her husband and kids but for her ability to continue to get back on the court.
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Monday’s Pen to Paper: A Mother’s Love
I’d like to share an excerpt from my memoir, Back on the Court. In this piece, I am 25 years old and have recently been released from the hospital after being in a tragic accident where my fiancé was killed and I was critically injured. I am being moved into my parent’s house just days before I was supposed to be getting married…
A Mother’s Love
One more sip of water and I swear I’ll puke. I’m about to burst and I’m buzzing on a Percocet high that keeps me floating in this unwanted nightmare. More water means another trip to the bathroom, which means another transfer and more pain.
Slumping forward in my wheelchair, I drop my head and close my eyes. My water glass sits untouched. The air behind me thickens, and then dissipates slowly as mom lets out a muffled […]
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: AAU, Summer Camp or Sun Bath? What To Do This Summer?
Are you (or one of your kids) a high school basketball player or athlete? Then what you choose to do over the summer is a valid question and the answer is not always a simple one. The answer comes from a more important question, what do you want? Do you want to work on your game and become a better basketball player? Then you have some options. First, attending a few individual camps is a good way to get some specific work done. You get college level coaches and players working with you to become better, and nothing is more powerful. I had a blast when I went away to camp when I was young. We played a few games of course, but I got a lot of skill work in and I improved a ton. The drills helped my game and […]
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Knowledge is Power
My tennis lesson this week was a reminder in coaching. A reminder on how important it is to understand what level you are coaching, and to coach to that level. Don’t assume that all your players know what you are talking about, especially if they are new to your program, or camp, or training. Be sure to ask questions and explain the little things.
Make sure that everyone is on the same page.
When using sport specific vocabulary take extra care. Yes, kids and adults can usually figure out what you’re talking about on their own. I figured out that the service line was not the line that you serve behind this week at tennis and when I was a kid I eventually learned what sideout meant when I joined volleyball in high school (though this one took me a while), […]
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