I usually consider myself an optimist, but after deciding to write this post, I may not be. I have a bone to pick with "well, you tried you're best, so it's fine." I hate that I find myself saying that to my kids. At some point I guess I might, if I had to and only to make people feel better and only in certain situations kind of believe it. Here's the reason why I don't buy it (humiliation on the line again...) When I was a junior in high school I tried out for the varsity song leader squad. I cheered on JV that year and I liked it a lot and really wanted to be a song leader. The song leaders at our school were good, like really good, like went to competitions and got first place good. It was serious business. I had friends that had been song leaders in previous years and they danced their tails off, it was a joy to watch. So I went to the audition and it was really hard. I thought I held my own though. By that time in my life I had been dancing for almost ten years. I could remember a routine pretty well on short notice. The dance was fast, really fast, but I felt good about it, in fact you could say that I did the best I possibly could. There were a few other things in the tryout, I don't remember specifically, but just more testing of abilities. At the end of the audition I got cut. I was absolutely devastated. I mean I hadn't felt that upset by anything for a really long time and quite honestly I don't know if I have since (that's actually kind of weird). Anyway I was a wreck. I went home and cried my eyes out to my mom. The very, very worst part was that I knew I did my best, there was nothing left to give, I gave it all, but was it enough? Not even close, I didn't make it through the first cut. It just sucks to know that no matter what you do, you come in about 20th place. Such is life I guess, but you won't catch me throwing around the" you did your best" without some serious peer pressure...
I meant for this post to be funny, turns out it just sounds grouchy huh?This is not a woe is me post either, I was just thinking about it the other day. I often hear you did your best on TV and it makes me laugh.