Defining Moments

By now nearly everyone has been educated on the concept of defining moments in one's life.  It is a place where, in a moment, your life takes a 90 degree turn and goes in a different direction.  I personally have had a very small handful of defining moments and remember my first one with clarity.

I attended a boarding school for girls my last two years of high school.  It was one of the best experiences of my life and I will write more about it at some point.  But my first defining moment came at Saint Mary's Hall.

There was a century old tradition of an all girls drill team at my school.  It was small and an elite status came with being a member of the squad.  I tried out so that I could be a member my senior year.  Until then almost everything I had done had been easy.  I was a pretty good student, a good athlete, a good friend.  I liked being good at everything I did.  Lots of girls tried out and over the weeks I watched as more and more girls were rejected from the possibility of making the squad.  It came down to three of us left.  You can guess the rest of the story.  I was cut and my two friends went onto Hell Night and made the cut.  I was devastated.  But in the years that followed and even still I think back to the important lesson I learned.  I learned that because you fail at one thing does not mean that you are a failure.

My father had a saying he used frequently.  He used to say, "perfect is good enough".  That is pretty hard to obtain - perfection.  I learned to be happy with trying my best, working hard, and learning that praying didn't hurt either.  Being perfect isn't necessary.  Being true to yourself and what you can do is.  I hope other people will have moments of clarity in their defining moments as well.  I will write about my other ones as I get the notion to.