Are You Prepared For Success? (Section II - Installment #18f "The Race” – Female version)

(If this is your first time on this site, please begin with "Are You Prepared For Success?" [Introduction])

If you are a male reader please go to the Male version of this post.

The Race

I
"Quit! Give up! You're beaten!"
They shout out and plead.
"There's just too much against you now.
This time you can't succeed!"

And as she started to hang her head
In front of failure's face,
Her downward fall was broken by
The memory of the race.

And hope refills her weakened will
As she recalled the scene;
For just the thought of that short race
Rejuvenated her being.

II
A children's race--young girls, young women;
How she remember well.
Excitement, sure, but also fear;
It wasn't hard to tell.

They all lined up so full of hope:
Each thought to win the race.
Or tie for first, or if not that,
At least take second place.

And mothers watched from off the side,
Each cheering for the one she nursed.
And each girl hoped to show her mom
That she would come in first.

The whistle blew and off they went!
Young hearts and hopes afire.
To win, to be the hero there
Was each young girl's desire.

And one girl in particular
Whose mom was in the crowd,
Was running near the lead and thought,
"My mom will be so proud."

But as she speeded down the field
Across a shallow dip,
The little girl who thought to win,
Lost her step and slipped.

Trying hard to catch herself
Her hands flew out to brace,
And mid the laughter of the crowd
She fell flat on her face.

So down she fell and with her hope
She couldn't win it now--
Embarrassed, sad, she only wished
To disappear somehow.

But as she fell her mom stood up
And showed her anxious face,
Which to the girl so clearly said:
"Get up and win the race!"

She quickly rose, no damage done
Behind a bit, that's all--
And ran with all her mind and might
To make up for her fall.

So anxious to restore herself
To catch up and to win
Her mind went faster than her legs:
She slipped and fell again!

She wished that she had quit before
With only one disgrace.
"I'm hopeless as a runner now;
I shouldn't try to race."

But in the laughing crowd she searched
And found her mother's face.
That steady look which said again:
"Get up and win the race!"

So she jumped up to try again.
Ten yards behind the last--
"If I'm to gain those yards," she thought,
"I've got to move real fast."

Exerting everything she had,
She gained eight or ten,
But trying so hard to catch the lead
She slipped and fell again!

Defeat! She lay there silently
A tear dropped from her eye--
"There's no sense running anymore:
Three strikes I'm out, why try?"

The will to rise had disappeared
All hopes had fled away;
So far behind, so error-prone:
A loser all the way.

"I've lost, so what's the use," she thought.
"I'll live with my disgrace."
But then she thought about her mom
Who soon she'd have to face.

"Get up," an echo sounded low.
Get up and take your place.
You were not meant for failure here.
Get up and win the race."

With borrowed will, "Get up," it said,
"You haven't lost at all,
For winning is no more than this:
To rise each time you fall."

So up she rose to win once more,
And with a new commit
She resolved that win or lose,
At least she wouldn't quit.

So far behind the others now.
The most she'd ever been--
Still she gave it all she had
And ran as though to win.

Three times she'd fallen stumbling:
Three times she rose again.
Too far behind to hope to win
She still ran to the end.

They cheered the winning runner
As she crossed, first place,
Head high and proud and happy;
No falling, no disgrace.

But when the fallen youngster
Crossed the line, last place,
The crowd gave her the greater cheer
For finishing the race.

And even though she came in last
With head bowed low, unproud,
You would have thought she won the
Race to listen to the crowd.

And to her mom she sadly said,
"I didn't do so well."
"To me you won," her mother said.
"You rose each time you fell."

III
And when things seem dark and hard
And difficult to face,
The memory of that little girl
Will help you in your race.

For all of life is like that race.
With ups and downs and all.
And all you have to do to win
Is rise each time you fall.

"Quit!" "Give up, you're beaten!"
They still shout to your face.
But another voice within you says:
"GET UP AND WIN THE RACE!"

(Based on a poem of unknown authorship)

I strongly suggest that you write down your immediate reaction, after passionately reading this poem.

• When have you wanted to quit, but something made you keep going and you were glad you did? (Be Specific!)

Go to Section II (Installment #19)

The+Race, give+up beaten succeed slipped face fell embarrassed anxious Laughing disgrace win+the+race