Born to Be

Born to Be

Sometimes I wonder, are we born to be something? To do something?

Was Einstein born to be a scientist? Was Gretzky born to be a hockey player? Was Carrot Top born to be an idiot?

What got me thinking was watching the youngest go to a skating event at school. It wasn’t a hockey practice. I wasn’t even a skating practice. Just a bunch of kids, some on those funny, plastic walkers, skating around. No sticks. No pucks. Skates and helmets only.

Then they threw some balls on the ice. Big, rubber balls that, in my day, would have made the perfect dodge ball. Oh, boy, wing that thing hard enough and that’d leave a good mark on Guy Machet’s face for stealing my pencil.

But when the balls came out, the youngest took up position in the goalie’s blue box. No net behind him. No goal posts. No one told him to. No games were organized.

Yet there he was. In goal. Being a goalie.

It’s what he does.

When he skates onto the ice for a hockey practice, he goes in net. Even when he’s not dressed as the goalie. Sometimes the coaches have to actually drag him out of net. Sometimes, when he’s playing a game, he’ll fade back until he’s nearly in the net with the real goalie. And, his bestest, most favourite Christmas present was, not surprisingly, a mini hockey goalie kit.

For him, being a goalie is all he wants to be, all he wants to do.

So imagine, yesterday, 6am, the coach says, we’re going to suit up two goalies this morning. He looks at the youngest. Are you up for that?

Does he say, “Nah, the pressure’s too much.”?

Does he say, “Gosh, coach, some of the other kids might want to try.”?

Or does he start to jump up and down (like I put a mouse on fire in his jock) and shout, “Yes, YES, YES!!!!”

You probably guessed which way he went.
So, whether or not he was born to be a goalie, only time will tell, but one thing for sure is that he is passionate about being a goalie.

But it’s more than that. He HAS to be a goalie. Like I HAVE to write. Like Celine Dion HAS to sing. Like the sun has to shine.

And it’s that kinda cool?