#missed-opportunities

#missed-opportunities

When I think back on my life, shyness feels like an inner prison I carried with me for years. Not a prison with bars and guards, but a quieter kind-made of hesitation, fear, and silence. It kept me standing still while life moved forward around me. One memory stays with me: my eighth-grade dance. The gym was alive with music, kids moving awkwardly but freely on the floor, laughing, bumping into one another, having fun.

I made choices that widened the distance between my mom and my daughter. My daughter's mom died when she was just 3 years and 5 months old in January 2001. When I remarried a year and a half later in July 2002, my wife's family became the center of all family gatherings. Since they lived closer than my mom, my daughter naturally gravitated more toward her stepmom's side.

The Atlanta Falcons let us down. They let us down in the postseason, the middle of the year, the opener, but we know disappointment is lurking long-armed and many-clawed just around the corner at any given moment. We believe-perhaps we know-one day they will fail to disappoint, and we reap the glorious reward of many long years of faith and fandom.