Running: Detours and Smiles

Have you ever wondered how a smile can change the trajectory of your life? Join me, Linden Wolfe, as I recount my transition from a lackluster basketball season to discovering my hidden talent in track and field. In this nostalgic episode of "Here for the Memories," I share how a coach's misjudgment and a simple smile led me to excel in a new sport, opening doors I never thought possible. Listen in as I reflect on anchoring a state-renowned 4x100 relay team and the invaluable life lessons I gleaned along the way.

Beyond the athletic achievements, this episode dives deep into the broader themes of resilience and adaptability. Discover how setbacks can turn into opportunities with the right mindset, and learn why maintaining a positive attitude can be a game-changer in life's toughest moments. Whether you're looking to reminisce about your own high school days or seeking inspiration to tackle life's unpredictable detours, this episode offers humor, heartfelt anecdotes, and thought-provoking commentary that resonate universally. Tune in and find out how looking back can sometimes light the way forward.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Here for the memories thought-provoking audio memoir shorts filled with stories, humor, anecdotes and commentary on social, cultural, business and religious issues. Whatever Lyndon remembers and thinks will entertain, challenge and inform is a possible subject. The collection of memories about one's life allows for the development and refinement of a sense of self, including who one is, how one has changed and what one might be like in the future.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Greetings and salutations. I'm Lyndon Wolfe and you have joined here for the Memories, my audio memoir, often called a podcast, I think. Glad you stopped by. You are always welcome here. I've often said if you are slow but everyone else around you is slower, you appear to be quite fast. So now a story about running.

Speaker 2: 0:58

In the very first episode I dropped a mention that I was a college athlete and I was. Track and field was what helped pay my way through the private Christian school I attended. That would have been unattainable otherwise. That probably means I also competed in high school and I did. I lettered in both basketball and track and per Coach Bales great baseball coach, by the way, professional baseball player. I would have also lettered in baseball if I had chosen to join the team, which was one of the finest of the state. The lessons and stories many for future podcasts are manifold. Today I will hit you with a couple of stories that taught me valuable life lessons. These are high school stories, first, central High School and it's about detours and smiles. Don't seem to go together, but I think they do.

Speaker 2: 1:49

It was my underwhelming basketball career that forced me into track and field the season before my senior year's shooting exploits, overly aggressive defense and too frequent vitriol. I was cut from the team after making it as a sophomore. That coach said I was too slow. Coach West was his name. He was dead wrong. I mean dead wrong. I wasn't slow and never had been. But to prove him wrong I joined the track team and quickly found myself on the 4x100 relay at a school in the state's division of largest schools. Although an injury kept me from even the first race that year, I knew I could raise myself to a level at least a notch above mediocrity in that sport and I did. My senior year of my first full track season I anchored the 4x100 relay team, one of the fastest in the state. I was the one who crossed the finish line to surprise Austin East High School as the city champs in that event. They were the perennial winner in the city meet and often the entire state. As an aside, the Austin East coach kiddingly called me the fastest white high schooler in the state, but I hate to admit that was probably not quite true Flattery, I think. Anyway, from the city meet we moved on to the state where our second-leg runner pulled up lame in the finals and we DNF'd Bummer.

Speaker 2: 3:17

So here's the life lesson. Early in that senior track season I had challenges with tying up or slowing down considerably. During the last quarter of a race, coach Emery probably my most favorite coach ever and there have been a lot of coaches in my life told me that the tension started in my face and that if I ran while smiling it wouldn't happen. And he was exactly right. It worked like a charm and I competed so much better, I was so much faster.

Speaker 2: 3:51

I've often said that was a tremendous life lesson, not about running or track or relays, but about life. Aren't we better at almost everything when we keep a smile on our face? The point Attitude is so critical in life and even in the detours, difficulties and defeats, a smile makes things more tolerable, more endurable. Speaking of detours, if it weren't for a coach misjudging my abilities, I would have never joined the school track program and, as it turned out, it was exactly where I needed to be. It was there that I reached the apex of my physical talents and supplemented financing my bachelor's degree.

Speaker 2: 4:37

One of those coincidences too coincidental just to be a coincidence. What about you as you look back? Just to be a coincidence. What about you as you look back? Do you recognize where detours ultimately led you to where you needed to be? Do you recall times where a smile would have been your best choice while facing difficulties? Summon your past to buoy your spirit as you ponder the always uncertain future. Remember that everything happens for a reason and it's up to us to find out what that reason is. I'm Lyndon Wolfe, and this is here for the Memories. I'm so glad you chose to join me today as we part. Look back fondly and look forward bravely until we meet again. I'll make a long story short.