"Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the making of action in spite of fear"

i like this quote a lot. as you may or may not know, i am an avid soccer player. i play the starting goalkeeper for our girls varsity team, and have ever since freshmen year. all the positions on the field require some courage, and 'keeper is definitely one of them...

before every away game, i sit on the bus on the way there and listen to a tape i made to get myself pumped up. i also have a small journal in my bag. i just write about the games after we play them, how many saves i had etc. i also have some quotes in the beginning, and this is one of them...

courage is a big part of anyone's life, not only in sports, but in any decision making task. there is often a misconception of the word. some people tend to think that people who are courageous fear nothing...this is where the misconception occurs. they fear something, but continue with what they want to do, in spite of that! webster defines courage as, "the capacity to meet danger with firmness, bravery." this is true...as long as the person can identify that there is danger...this constitutes their courage. my coach is always saying how courageous i am in goal...not because i am constantly making sliding one-on-one saves and the such. anyone can do that if they want...but the difference is that i know it's dangerous, yet i continue to do it. if i could list all the injuries i have gotten through soccer...it would take forever! just this season i have sprained my wrist and my knee...and we've only had one scrimmage! *l* it's the case with anything...if you know there is a risk of danger involved, but you still do something, you have the right to call yourself courageous!

this is gonna have to be cut short...i hope the small amount recorded made some kind of sense! until next time...take care.

send comments to Meg