Cactus from my yard
I missed a blog entry last weekend—I’m trying to do one every Sunday. I have enough self-awareness to know I’ll miss a few here and there (and to not beat myself up about it—guilt has never been a strong motivator for me). I’m blaming the out-of-towner for last weekend.
Every year I take my tennis team on one overnight trip to play in a tournament that is too far to commute. The last several years it has been College Station—before that it was Corpus Christi. It used to be a one night trip; now we leave on Thursday after school and get back some time Saturday afternoon or evening. My reasons for making it a one-nighter were cost and the fact that I didn’t want to deal with possible teenage misbehavior for two full nights. My reason for making it a two-nighter is that I no longer trust myself driving at 5 a.m. on Friday morning.
My kids love the out-of-towner. It gets talked about long before and long after. I only take eight boys and eight girls, so the competition for those final spots can be fierce. Most of the girls pack like they are running away from home. I’m blessed to have a school district that provides me with a mini school bus, so I don’t have to maneuver my way around a strange town in one of those long cheese wagons. The bus is always packed to the gills with kids and luggage. I usually have two or three sets of parents caravanning behind me.
I think I understand why the kids love the trip so much. It means two and half days of non-stop camaraderie. It involves joyous decisions, like who goes in what room and where we will eat and who plays at what site and what time is curfew. I usually have at least one new “relationship” spring up on the out-of-towner. There’s a 50/50 chance of it being warm enough to swim in Texas in February, and there’s always a few maniacs who will swim regardless of the temperature. In these days of instant communication, you bring along anyone you want who is not on the trip. (On this past weekend, one of my players texted his girlfriend 150 times in one evening.) Tennis against mostly people you’ve never played before. No parents for two days (unless they come—most kids don’t want them to). What’s not to love?
Of course, I dread the out-of-towner. And it’s not because I don’t have any fun. Most of the time the trip is quite enjoyable. But it carries a huge responsibility with it, and that responsibility falls on me. Sixteen parents have entrusted their children to me for more than two full days. I carry their lives in the school bus. I drop them off at various tennis sites and assure them I’ll be back to check on them as soon as I can. I’m responsible for their behavior in the restaurant. And at night I have to make sure everyone is in the bed he/she is supposed to be in, doing what he/she is supposed to be doing (sleeping). For me, the best part of the trip is pulling into the school parking lot on Saturday with everybody safe and sound.
The worst that has happened on the out-of-towner was one year in Corpus when a boy was horsing around on a bed and cracked his head against the night table. Of course, he and his friends didn’t even want to tell me about it, but he was bleeding a lot so they finally decided they better. They brought him to my room and told me what happened. He was a little pale and it was a deep gash, but the bleeding had stopped. I took him to my female chaperone’s room and consulted her. We agreed that since the bleeding had stopped and he hadn’t lost consciousness, we’d forego the Emergency Room and keep an eye on him throughout the night. In the morning he felt fine. When I went through his room at check-out, I discovered the towels they’d used to stop the bleeding. When I saw how much blood I almost passed out myself! Thank God the boy was my own son Zachary.
I don’t know how many more out-of-towners we’ll do. (I invented the phrase “teenagered-out” after this last one.) School districts are changing, tightening things up, counting beans more carefully. I have two more years until I retire, and I’ll schedule the out-of-towner both years if they’ll let me. I think the benefits I observe on the trip far outweigh the potential risks. I know my kids come back with memories they’ll cherish the rest of their lives. It seems worth it to me.
I’d say so:)
I actually do enjoy reading this. Keep it up. I’ll be purchasing the novels soon
hey zach — i just discovered i can respond to past comments on my blogs. thanks for the kind words. if you do read one of my ebooks, would you mind posting something on goodreads.com (just a sentence or so!)? my daughter tells me that is the best way to spread the word about your work. thanks again for checking me out!