The Voices of Ukrainians

The last day of our summer camp, I told the kids about my first tennis game in high school.   It was a game that skill-wise I should have won, but I was so nervous and afraid of messing up that I totally blew the game.   It was only after I was one game away from losing the match that I relaxed and just played, after all, in my mind I had already lost, there was no stress.    And then I started winning.   But after winning four games in a row, I thought, “Wow, I might actually win this game.”   Then the stress returned … and I lost.   I focused on that time in the game where I had pretty much lost, but the game just wasn’t over yet.   There was an awesome freedom that comes when you know you’ve lost and you just get to play.   You can experiment, and if you mess up; who cares you’ve already lost.   If you do good, it feels good and you can enjoy it without worrying if it’s good enough.   Life is a lot like that tennis match.   I have spent a lot of my life thinking to myself,