Find what moves you to passion. Not for the fame and fortune, but because you cannot not do it.
Over the course of the next couple of weeks, Iola High and area schools graduate another class of young people. If you look closely, you’ll find a lot of the top students are athletes along with others who were active in school organizations and extracurricular activities.
May is also a month that gives way to one of my favorite sports — it’s Triple Crown time. Today, all the horses loaded into the Kentucky Derby starting gate have the opportunity to win the Triple Crown.
Just like those horses, the young men and women who are graduating and all the underclassmen have opportunities to run their own race.
My all-time favorite race horse is Secretariat, who won the Triple Crown in stunning fashion in 1973. I was like most of the world, I think, at the time awed by his power and charisma.
After all was said and done, Secretariat blew past all-comers to win in big fashion the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.
Passion drove those around Secretariat.
Most student athletes at the middle school and high school levels try their hands at several sports. Which is good. They are trying to discover just what sport, if any, they’d like to pursue further. Sometimes they excel at more than one. Then the choice is even harder.
But go for it, I say.
Growing up, I loved playing softball. Wasn’t bad, but not a sport I saw myself playing beyond the summer leagues. I loved football. Again, not a sport I was going to play.
Music was a passion for me. I saw myself playing the trumpet professionally. I practiced and practiced. I was good in high school. I pursued music in college, and even lettered four years at Kansas State in marching band.
But I found my true passion. The one I’ve found that I cannot not do — being a sports journalist and photographer.
I recently watched the movie “Secretariat” and loved it. Though I know the race scenes were not really him on the track. Except one — they used the Preakness footage of Secretariat’s win on the family television in the scene.
But what stuck with me was the use of one of my favorite scriptures from the Book of Job. God answered Job:
“Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane? Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting? He paused fiercely, rejoicing in his strength and charges into the fray. He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing, He does not shy away from the sword. The quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance. In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground. He cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.”
Don’t stand still when the trumpet sounds. Move forward, take your opportunities and run your race.
