Le Pull-Up

The first thing I felt after I did my first (and controversial, we'll come back to that) pull-up ever was that... I had not felt like this in a very very long time.

The satisfaction of? Maybe the cat who gets the canary? I recall having that feeling before. It was the glee of finally blowing a gum bubble after months if not years of relentless strategic pursuit.

For a brief period in my life I could do cartwheels and walk on my hands and I've done a couple other noteworthy things in my life but honestly, the gum-bubble and the pull-up are twins in this special space of milestones that you pick for yourself, without anyone suggesting them specifically.

As I think of it: there is a collection of milestones in that space, all very special. Largely things I struggled with and overcame and then deposited in that space and moved on.

The thing is many of these key special and treasured milestones are behavioral and so the finish line tends to be murky: one day you look around and you wonder, for instance, if a fear you used to have is infinitely less powerful.  So you review your memories and confirm that yes it is. It's a great feeling but it's not a sharp joy.

It's not a one second bubble or two seconds pull-ups.

Those are the most fun guests at the party, if not the deepest.

And make no mistake: I am in fact gleeful like a 7 year old who blew her first gum bubble.

But back to the controversy:
My 16 year old son says my pull up is lame but my coach says it's 93% or A-.

My coach is not a grade inflater usually whereas my son habitually judges me through a developmentally appropriate hyper-critical filter.

So my coach wins.

Till Later,

Anne