Stories from Kristina + Breanne

  Shared by Breanne Smedley "You always have it all figured out!" The words came out of one of my 16-year-old volleyball players a couple of years ago. "Yeah!" Someone else echoed. "Like, perfect!"   The moment those words left her lips, my heart sank. Because as everyone who strives for perfection knows, "having it all together" on the outside rarely looks the same on the inside.   But, I felt the pressure. To be all, and do all. And appear like I was juggling it all perfectly.   The season that this sweet, young, and confident volleyball player told me this was the one that I had just come back from having a baby. Charlee was 5 months old when I went back to teaching and coaching full time. I was determined to continue exclusively breastfeed. Teach all day. Coach in the evenings. Workout 7 days a week. Eat clean and only eat out 1x per week max. Wear the right clothes and makeup. Spend time with family. Have a clean, modernly decorated house. A...

Shared by Breanne Smedley In 7th grade, I decided to go out for middle school track. In 7th grade, I also looked like a baby giraffe. One of the events the coach said I should do was the 200m sprint. "Just a half a lap!" She said. Knowing no different, I decided to go for it. Nervously, I set up for the race. "Runners to your marks." The judge yelled. I walked over to my lane and got set up in the blocks the way I had been taught.   "Set!" I lifted my hips in the air. The gun sounded, and I bounded out of the blocks as fast as I could. I rounded the first corner, still pretty even with the other girls. After the round, I noticed that I had pulled ahead a bit. The finish line was in sight and I didn’t feel any of the other racers next to me. I heard cheering from parents in the stands and the coaches on the sidelines. "I’m ahead!" I remember thinking. Then, with only about 50 meters left in the race, I made a fatal error. Curious as to just how fa...