The Kid

When I arrived at the ballpark, half the baseball game had already been played. The scoreboard was 3-2 with the opposing team ahead. I stepped up the bleachers on the visitor team side and nodded my greeting to a fellow dad. I felt a little embarrassed for arriving halfway through the game and had to gather my thoughts which were everywhere and nowhere. I had dropped Lorenzo off about an hour before the game started so I didn’t even looked up at the batter at home plate when I came back. It was a cool night. I sat next to a kid who was cool too, but I didn’t realize that until later.

The dad whom I had greeted told me, “Lorenzo is up.” That was all it took for me to dispose of my scattered thoughts. After a few pitches, Renzo sent a line drive to third which the player covering the base snatched. Two outs. It was a good play on his part and a great display of young, keen reflexes. In spite of that, the opposing team’s pitching began to crumble which, combined with a few hits here and there, brought us home enough times to catch up and pass them by more than a few runs.

The inning ended and teams exchanged field positions. I looked to my left and to my surprise the kid sitting next to me was someone I knew. He had been to school with one of my kids and we used to go to the same church.

“Hey, kid! I’m sorry! I didn’t even notice it was you sitting here next to me all along. Good to see you. How are you?”
“I’m good.”
“Are you playing baseball this season?”
“No.”
“You’re just enjoying the game, I suppose.”
“My friend is playing. I came with him.”
“What sport are you playing now?”
“I’m playing soccer and I’m also playing football.”
“You’re playing two sports!”
“I’m trying to fit as many sports into my schedule as I can.”

My one and only thought when I heard this was, “Mic drop!”

It’s nothing strange for kids to have full schedules. Kids who keep themselves active (or are made so by their parents) while at school remain healthier for the most part. Of course, there’s a level of toxicity to an excessively full schedule, but lack of activity will rob anyone of precious years of life. However, full schedules are the particular reality of the overachieving kids who find themselves in the Fairfax County Public Schools or the schools of Northern Virginia at large. They keep a full school load and excel at it, then they play sports, do after school clubs and activities, they play musical instruments, are boy and girl scouts, etc. That’s the way they roll and it’s just normal around these parts. This kid sitting next to me at the local ballpark was one of them.

As I kept my short conversation with him I asked, knowing he's soon to be in middle school,

“Will you be going to such and such a school next school year?”
“No, I’m going to Lanier.”
I said, “I guess you had the option to go to one or the other, right?”
“I actually had four options.”
My one and only thought? Yeah...
“I see! So why Lanier?”
“Because of my friends.”

The kid’s unassuming coolness remained. I think his unawareness of it too. He was definitely self-assured and there is a fine line between self-assuredness and cockiness. But this wasn’t it. I said to myself, “Where’s this kid from?” Of course, I knew where he’s from. I even know where he lives. But fitting “as many sports into my schedule as possible” and “I actually had four options” are not your typical 6th grader responses.

Chances are this kid will be going places in his journey to adulthood. A lot of credit goes to his parents. They are the ones who keep him busy, but they are the hedges that protect him too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he runs for president one day. But if the odds are in his favor and he’s sworn in, I’ll be the only one remembering this mundane conversation mainly because of his two mics dropped on the bleachers at a little league ballpark many years before. That is unless the cool kid happens to have an extraordinary memory and also remembers it.