The challenge was on.
Golf is pretty important to me. If you couldn’t tell.
Pretty much every goal that I make relates to golf in some way.
I mean, I’m not crazy. I have a few goals that have nothing to do with golf but with all sincerity, they don’t seem as immediately important as the golf ones.
I’m not sure why they aren’t, they’re fairly important, but golf seems to be a massive part of who I am.
So imagine my surprise when someone close to me achieves one of those major golf goals before me. Right in front of me, no less.
I met a girl in the midst of 2020. Our first real date was a trip to the golf course with her friends. It was also the first time she’d ever tried to play golf.
Let me just say that it wasn’t very impressive. Her golf game that is.
She’d never swung a golf club before, and she hit the ground more times than she hit the ball but she must’ve liked me a lot because she kept trying. Amid all the laughter from her friends she just kept swinging. That impressed me.
I’m not sure what I did right that day but we spent more and more time together and she soon learned how deeply the love of golf was ingrained within me.
Another date, another golf round. This time it was mini golf.
She asked me if I’d ever had a hole-in-one.
“No, never,” was the answer that I mustered, lost deep in the thought of how many times I’d tried.
By the 5th or 6th hole, I wondered if I ever would.
On the 7th, I watched her pull the putter back and knock the ball forward, and with the grace of a gazelle, the ball rolled over the lip of the cup and fell from view.
My heart jumped at the same time her feet left the ground, jumping for joy.
She’d achieved the thing I’d desired for so long.
It was stellar and shocking, all at once, and I was left dazzled.
I wasn’t sure how I felt in that moment. I was happy she’d done it, yet ashamed of my luck. (Maybe my skill.)
Much to my chagrin, she turned to me and chuckled, “I did it before you!”
The challenge was on.
We’ve played mini golf quite a few times since, and now I can proudly say that I definitely have more HIO’s than she does. Score one for me. (I kicked her ass last time too. Don’t tell her I said that though.)
Dreadfully though, it’s happened again.
For as long as we’ve been dating and then some, I’ve been on a mission to break 80. You know this. It’s all I talk about on here.
Well, she’s done it.
No, not 80. But 100. Pretty damn good for someone who’d never picked up a club until a year and a half ago.
This time I didn’t feel anything negative. All I could feel was pride for what she accomplished.
Now, sitting here, writing this, I feel motivated. Motivated to go out and finally hit my number. She made it all feel possible again.
Sometimes, you just need that person who challenges you. Someone to show you that it’s possible and then pushes you to achieve it. Someone who drives you to be better in every facet and then giggles and cracks an adorable smile when they achieve it first.
Iron sharpens iron. You’ve got to go through the heat and pressure to become the shiny diamond.
And I can’t tell you how lucky I am to have found that sharpener.