07/21/2026
It was storming when we left the house. The real Florida kind. We drove through it anyway, because my daughter had somewhere to be that she'd spent nine weeks getting ready for.
The timeline is the story: she fell on a Tuesday in May. Surgery Wednesday. That Saturday, three days post-op, arm in a cast, she asked me to take her to the gym to cheer her teammates through their score-out meet. Then she didn't step foot in that building again.
Nine weeks. Not once.
This past Friday, she walked back through the gym doors. Not to train, to tell her coaches four words: "I'm coming back."
She never got to say it first.
The girls saw her and came off the equipment RUNNING. Mid-rotation. One of them still in her grips, she didn't stop to take them off. The hug happened with wrapped wrists around my daughter's neck and chalk all over her pink top and nobody caring.
Nine weeks she stayed away. They received her like it had been nine minutes.
And a confession from the professional photographer in the family: I didn't have my camera. Just my phone and my glasses. Turns out the camera was never the point, I've literally written that sentence before, and Friday I got schooled by my own sermon.
Yesterday, she went back for real.
The comeback is just getting started. I’m telling the whole story on my Substack, chapter by chapter. Subscribe at the link in the comments so you don’t miss what happens next. 🤍
These are the days.
Link in the comments. 🤍