Acceptance

Thought Thought (Day 44: 13-Aug-2013)

can makes wonders happen. 

Even as a kid, Ramana was a sports enthusiast. He would force his mom to give him those milk shakes that the commercials claimed to help kids gain intelligence and strength. Without doubt, he was the favorite student of his PT teachers. He took part in all sports activity in his school and won many prizes in both internal and inter-school sports meets.

His parents knew well what their child aspires and did not force him to excel in his studies. They only wanted what was best for him. Ramana did just enough in his studies to get promoted every year. The school management too knew that Ramana was a rare treasure and helped him with whatever support he required. He spent almost all his time into being an ace in all the sports he could get access to. He was good in indoor games like chess,  and table tennis as well as those games that required more physical fitness like cricket and basketball.

While he was in his 7^th grade, he had a growth spurt and was the taller than most students his age. He was selected into the school basketball team even before he turned 15. His skill, interest and enthusiasm earned him a place in the state junior level basketball team and he travelled all over the country with his team and brought back accolades. When he was not playing basketball, he was busy making his mark in the TT domain as well.

All went well until his coaches noticed that he was not getting any taller and feared his future in the basketball genre once he graduated from high school. He was only as tall as a normal 15 year old and that was sufficient for a junior team. His growth was hindered after he turned 15. They were worried that this promising star would not make it to the senior level team. Ramana joined a college under its sports quota. Ramana was not accepted into the senior basketball team just as was feared. His small body frame made the coaches from college overlook his gaming skills, though we could see few not-so-tall players in a team.

Recommendations and repeated talks with the coaches did not help. This pushed Ramana in to depression since this was the first rejection he ever faced; and worse still in a game he was good at. He was counseled by professionals, was made to concentrate on the silver lining and to ignore the dark cloud engulfing him.

His medical instability became a threat to his education as well since he was a student enrolled under the sports quote. With his parents’ guidance, Ramana was able to overcome his haunts and started focusing on what he could do next. 

In his dejected mind-set, he had forgotten that he was an ace in Table Tennis as well. He knew height was not a constraint in TT; focused all his energy in that direction and stood up as an individual winner instead of winning trophies just as part of a team. He learnt to live with the things that can't be changed and made changes which would benefit him.