The Secret to Success
IT’S A LONG ROAD FOR A BOX OF CHOCOLATES
By Edie Thys Morgan
All of these racers are smiling, but only two made the JO cut.
It’s that time of year. March Madness.
And of course I’m talking about skiing,
not basketball. This is when it all hap-
pens — regional champs, state champs,
Junior Olympics, etc. Lofty goals and su-
percharged energy converge as the big-
gest events in a young ski racer’s life play
out in one scrambling month. Hotel pools,
team dinners, game rooms and way too
many vending machines fuel the fire.
Throughout the month there will be big win-
ning moments and crushing losses. There
will be the elation of putting two clean runs
together and the devastation of screwing
up right at that spot the coaches pointed
out. This annual angst we have chosen for
ourselves is normal. And yet, every year it
seems like the end of the world is near when
things don’t go according to plan, when that
one chance at making the states, the uber-
stars or the intergalactics slips away like so
many skittles off a frozen mitten.
All of this means it’s the ideal occasion for
the “long road” speech. As in, it’s a long
road we’re traveling, people. As parents
cheering from the sidelines we can’t help
but want our kids to succeed at everything
they do, on every outing. We understand
that real progress is often a barely percep-
tible crawl, and that what we really want for
our kids is long-term success in life, not in
