She Shoots, She Scores!!!

After several years of playing soccer Aida had a momentous event this morning: she scored on the big field. {until now she has only scored while playing "indoor" - which in California is played outdoors...} It felt so great she did it again 5 minutes later! What was the score of the game you might be wondering? 2-0. The cool part was that Aida was not the only one who had a great game, a couple defensive players played much better than ever and the goalie had her best game ever with 5 saves. Most of the girls didn't know each other and it has been fun to see them become a team.

For me the best thing about soccer and Aida is the sense of achievement she feels about it. When she started years ago she was far from a "natural talent". She really struggled to stay focused during games and often didn't know what she was doing. I was tempted to encourage her to try something else before signing her up for a 2nd season. Eduardo asked her to try one more season and sure enough she started to enjoy it, although she still was not one of the strongest players. She has really worked at becoming a better player. She asks Eduardo to go outside and kick the ball, she really gives her all at practices, and likes her papa to push her during games.

We Macdonald women have a tendency not to push ourselves to do things we feel we might fail at. {I hope my mom and sister are not offended by that - I don't think they will be.} I can see that Aida has a bit of that in her too. I am so glad that early in her life something has showed her that she really can do anything she wants to.