A hero with a thousand faces.

One of these days I’ll get around to reading it, but I definitely identify with the title. Growing up I played at least 3 sports a year, every year (usually more). I learned to played multiple instruments, languages, you name it, I’ve legitimately done darn near all of it. However, none of what I did mattered to many growing up. I couldn’t figure out why until the most absurd story I could think of unfolded.

It started with one of the laziest, most disrespectful lies I could imagine. My son, who zero experience and laid on the ice for extended periods of time during evaluations as a goaltender got “traded” to the worst team in the league and this gentleman honestly told me it was to make them better….? I should mention, his new team had yet to score a goal.

Now I have the director of the league very blatantly lying to me. How do I know it’s a lie? His former team shared the practice slot with his new one and on the very first day, the mother of one player screamed at the top of her lungs in the coaches face how her precious was not to play with someone else’s. EVERY SINGLE PARENT ON BOTH TEAM HEARD IT. However, when pressed, this intellectual mastermind just kept lying. I wanted to see how far he’d go in his lies. I purposely would send him emails with contradicting points, he’d agree with them all, but essentially, I got told to go F myself, he was in charge and can do what he wanted.

The entire time I only talked about my son, not me. Funny how they ignored my son throughout, a pattern that would repeat. After that season, I had a gentleman drop him, at 12 year old, from his travel team plans simply because I informed him my father had Stage IV lung cancer. The crown jewel however involved the universe putting him on a team with a woman I met in college, 600 miles away, 26 years prior and accidently turned down. (The ask was through a mutual friend. She was with someone else and I didn’t know she ended it with him to see about me).

The kind of things that went on there were too unbelievable. I got this strange feeling from the start that one of my fellow coaches might be this girl’s Boyfriend from back in the day, which would have been weird enough on it’s own but it got worse. Eventually that gentleman couldn’t take his son to a tournament and his wife had to. There in the lobby of the hotel I saw someone who made me do a double take. Was it this girl? Um yeah, and not only was she purposely hiding, that’s what the drama’s been about all along and it was being taken out on my son…… I should mention I only knew this woman for a few weeks tops, I got over it, apparently she didn’t.

What a loser.

Anyway, this set off my journey of healing. Growing up everyone was always apologizing to me and very nice, but I always was being turned down or ignored completely, why? They didn’t like my parents or family, something I had absolutely no control over. The core wound of rejection ran through every facet of my life and if I didn’t end that cycle, it would continue for my kids.

That upbringing has forged me in fire though. For starters, good luck trying to lie to me, at all. I was never told the truth, so believe me when I say I know it when I actually hear it.