Sports day has always been my favourite event of the year through the entire school life. The student who wins the greatest number of gold medals gets a ‘student of the year’ award and I dreamed of getting that each year. Ahead of the big day, I would practice for relays, long jump, high jump and shot put throw but somehow, I always got either the second or third position in most of the events. Last year I missed getting the gold in three races by just a few seconds. It really upset me, but I vowed to get better next time.
Finally, the time came again for sports day. I was all pumped up and went for my practice run a day before the big event. I kept thinking about how cool it would be to take the big trophy home. When I got back home my mum and dad were waiting for me at the door. They asked me to sit down with them over a small talk. Dad asked me, “son, have you ever thought why you want to win so bad?” to which I immediately responded, “of course, dad. Because I want to bag the famous ‘student of the year’ award. To my surprise my parents said, “No, you do not need to.”
“What do you mean by I do not need to?” I asked confusedly.
“Son, do you know that you always end up securing either the second or third position because you run with a wrong cause.” My mom continued, “your focus must be on running only because you enjoy doing that and not because of some award.”
I went on to argue, “But mom, winning this trophy has always been an unfulfilled dream. What’s wrong in thinking about it?”
“There isn’t anything wrong about dreaming but in the
process of winning, you forget the very essence of why you like to participate
in races. Because you love them at first place,” my mom made sense.
It hit me hard that my parents were right. I wasn’t fully enjoying my games and was just robotically thinking about my grand wins. I was investing all my energies wrong. My parents had spoken the golden words and I resolved to work on this bit.
On the final day, I felt very nervous. Mum and dad were sitting in the audience and cheering out loud for me. When my turn came, I gave one final thought to my parents’ wise words and then started the run out of my sheer love for the game.
I realised that I was much at ease when I stopped thinking about the win. I was only enjoying the game and guess what! I finished my race and also won the gold medal while setting the newest high record for the school. Not just in relay races, I won the first position in the long jump, high jump and shot put throw categories too. At the end the judges called about the winner. And it was me. I had won the ‘student of the year’ award (hooray)!