On Raising Children: My daughter boxes

Look at that face. That determination to get back into her rhythm AFTER she pulls her hair out of her face.

They say children changes a person. ‘They’ are right.

You know that cocky confidence you had in your 20s. That sureness you had about life. That positive know it all move out my fuckin way attitude you wore proudly on your crown… Well, children…. children have an unapologetic way of making you look deep into your soul and showing YOU the true faces of YOUR true self.

Lazy? Unmotivated? Uninspired? You can’t afford to be any of those. Not in her presence. Those words can’t exist in your existence. Why? Because SHE… someone like her – will forever be looking upon you to show her what resilience, what perseverance, what commitment looks like. And when you slack, even just the tiniest of bit, she’s going to wonder how her unbeatable, undeniable mountain can crumble.

You are rock. You live forever. You don’t get to be soft.

She’s a natural born statistic by ‘their’ defines and yet she’s more beautiful inside and out than any creature alive but yet she will forever have to prove her abilities, her courageousness, and her intent, because she has to be a natural born beautiful killer of criticism, of hate, and of stigmas in order to make her dreams become her truth. She has to fight harder than you were ever prepared for her to.

And how can you show her if you aren’t a fighter yourself. She’s 9. We get old, we get cynical, we get tired and we forget. I hope she never does. Because her light fills our world especially on the darkest days.

She’s 9 – she’s faced hardship and uncertainty, she’s been bitten by a spider, she broke her arm while doing what children do, and yet she still loves love, she still plays in the fields and sings to the bugs, she pushes her body to limits beyond my comprehension, knowing she could get hurt, pushing even harder.

She’s 9… and her tenacity on how she wants to live puts me back and forces me to have faith once again.

The confidence that she builds here… with her peers, her friends, is what’s going to push her into every obstacle with the attitude of I WILL, because she can.

Children surely do change you.. They make you remember all the dreams you forgot, and they force you to wonder if you’re really being your true self.

I hope you have one in your life.

-Chastity