Dear Soccer Gods,

If you could take one thing away from soccer, please make it this time of year – the time that you and your 13-year-old daughter have to make decisions that we don't want to make today or ever. The one decision I would like to procrastinate on-but the one that I want to be made so quickly just to get this sick feeling out of my stomach.

The decisions that change, not within the hour or even minute... Within the moment.

Please take away my memory of all the good times and friends we have made and let us make our decisions based solely on why we do this...

Oh wait, don't do that... Those memories are too good for a person to forget. It is those moments in time, those experiences, those struggles and those successes that have made my daughter the person she is - and despite having her mother as a role model-she is a pretty good person.

Show us something measurable to make my decisions easier.

Oh wait, don't do that, because the easiest thing to measure is our record... And it wasn't that good this season. And that is a memory I would like to forget.

Show me a way to measure the love of a teammate, the love of the game, the feeling of being successful - whether it is with the team or individually.

Turn my bathroom mirror into a foggy crystal ball, so that I can see the future and know that the time and money I have spent so far in this lifetime on soccer teams, soccer training, soccer travel, soccer coaching isn’t going to end with a daughter becoming the ‘star’ of “16 and Pregnant-Season 8” and has instead kept her from that and made her into a stronger, successful woman who can handle the pressures that come with being a mom.

Sincerely,
Me

PS – I would like to apologize to my daughter. For several weeks, I believed that this was all for not. I had a momentary lapse in judgment and stopped believing in your potential. And although, I don’t want to be the mom that wears rose-colored glasses, I owe it to you to wear a pair that are at minimum tinted a very light shade of pink.

I can only hope that even though this past couple of weeks have been rough on you and have tested the lines of friendships that you have been so sure about for years, you will have learned something that will really, truly matter later in life.

You have a rough road ahead of you and I love you just a little more for taking the hard road. (And I appreciate you taking my advice about taking the high road – sometimes that is the hardest road of them all.)

Love you,
Mom