Did you ever decide or want to quit? Just plain quit?  Did you do it? I wish I could count how many times I wanted to quit.  Just say “nope, I’m not doing it”, but did it anyway.

There were times when I should have quit; like when I was a little girl.  I was ALWAYS the last to be picked for any sport.  Kickball, softball, dodgeball and the list goes on!  I would wait patiently to be the last picked to join a team. I would always join the lineup with pride and think to myself….I can do this. I can be as good as them.  I can kick, hit, dodge that damn ball. And you know what, I should have QUIT!  I wanted so bad to be good at it. I would try and try and still be last to be picked unless some boy  had a crush on me. Then the other kids on “his side” would lash out at him for picking me. To this day, I can say that I dislike sports because of it. I was programmed at a young age that I was not athletic and that I sucked at sports, OH except for slips.  I can say that I wasn’t the last one picked for “slips”.  For you youngen’s  that’s a game that is way more mature than hide-n-seek.   You play in an entire neighborhood or block. It is a team game, instead of one on one.  I could run fast. I could climb a tree like a monkey and wait ……and wait….and wait. I would wait so long that I could here my mom call me to come home. So, Yes, I did slips very well. So well, the teams had already called “olley olley oxen free!”  while I waited in that tree 50 feet in the air in the dark!  Heck I even screwed the name up.  I called olley olley outs in free!  I never got it. Figures, it stood for “Come out, come out wherever you are!” Why in the hell didn’t they just say that?  Mine made more sense anyway.

Fast forward….I am 57 and I am not athletic and I STILL suck at sports. I should have quit all those years ago and did what I was comfortable with and what felt natural. The things we do when it really was ok to just quit.  Sometimes, in this short life you have to look at the bigger picture. Sometimes stopping something isn’t necessarily quitting.  If there is something in your life, no matter if you are young or old…and it doesn’t feel right and maybe you are asking yourself  ”Is doing this right for me?”  If it’s not, stop.  You are not a quitter. You are a thinker, a do-er.  You are your own leader, not a follower. Really think stop and think about this. And, if it’s not hurting anybody else in the process, or more importantly if it is hurting you….you can STOP. I would not have hurt one kid in those days not to have played.  Not even the slip players. I could have been doing things that grew a better Penny. Who knows, maybe I would love sports today. (I really doubt it)  We only get this one shot as this soul we are today …on this damn roller coaster called life. Be your authentic self. Not who anyone else thinks you should or could be. Dear Sweet Jesus, if someone had only told me that years ago. I would have QUIT a lot of things.  I wouldn’t have so many false badges I carry with me to this day.

 I hope in some way I inspired you or made you laugh. Or maybe I took you back to a time in your childhood.  Now go out there and be the great you!!!!   And in case nobody has hugged you today…here is a hug from me. J