This is Mia, 9 years old. She’s been a regular hockey player for her school since the past 2 years. In fact she’s been with the school team since it was created at about the same time then. We supported all the way of course. Send her off and pick her up from training and tournaments. Bought her expensive hockey equipments. I remember the times we had to schedule our weekends around her hockey training sessions. Sometimes in the morning, other times at night at the Tun Razak hockey stadium in downtown KL.
She had good progress with the hockey team. At first they were the underdogs, barely manage to scrap a win if not defeated easily in competitions. Then as time goes by and after some consistent training and a lot of hard work, the team improved admirably. They were doing pretty well in several tournaments, usually making the semi finals if not the finals itself. In this picture here, you can see Mia and her family posing for a picture after losing out in the finals of the state championships. Mia was not as fair as her little sister to begin with but after 2 years of hockey, she gets a lot darker due to the harsh training conditions under the hot sun. It’s the sacrifice she had to make.
After the last state championships though, Mia decided to call it quits all of a sudden. We were not sure if it was because she was not selected to represent the state at the national level. If we ask her, she just said she’s tired of playing hockey. Two years of training and playing and she just feels tired now? Whatever it is we respect and supported her decision. It’s no use forcing your children to do something she does not enjoy anymore. Perhaps she is genuinely tired of hockey or she just wants to take a break from it all. It’s been a good but long journey and some experience to us all. Goodbye early morning and late night hockey trainings, I won’t miss it at all.
