Field Day

This was Emma's last field day.

In the days leading up to her second grade field day, Emma spent hours bouncing around the house and yard in a pillowcase, practicing for the sack race. When the day of the race came, she won a fifty yard race by about 20 yards.

By the next year, her win had become legendary among her classmates, and they all but conceded the race to her before it started. Of course, on race day, Emma finished about tenth out of twelve. If life were a TV show, the music would have come up, and she would have had a teary conversation with her sensitive yet firm Dad about competition and overconfidence, as she hugged a favorite stuffed animal (Mr. something) and the Dog sat at her feet.  A very important lesson would have been learned. Truthfully, though, I think that she thought it was just kind of funny.

It helped, too, that she won other events. She's always been very fast, as has her friend Lena, another Millbrook faculty child. Between them, they pretty much clean up on the sprint races. The 100 and 200 have been Emma's over the years, and the 400 has belonged to Lena.

A few years ago, they had a classic duel in the 400 where Emma fell behind early, then lost both her shoes, then closed the gap in her socks, only to come up a little short. Today, they ran against each other in the 400 for the last time, and they crossed the finish line holding hands.

Music UP