What’s approximately 4.5 feet tall, weighs 95 pounds, and has an undying love (aka an addiction) for riding horses and playing football?... My little brother that’s what.
Jonah Lee Smith is my 8-year-old little brother who thinks he’s 18. He is constantly telling me how when he’s in high school he is going to wear my jacket for FFA, then borrow my district jacket because he is also going to be the district secretary. He has also made it his life’s goal to torment me and pester me whenever possible. (Like any good little b should) Whether he is “borrowing” random items from my room, or finding new creative ways to inflict bodily harm on me, he is constantly going nonstop. Jonah has also already successfully mapped out both of our futures, and those of every animal on the ranch. However, when this little minion isn’t scheming and keeping his energy level below that of a cheetah on red bull, I have come to realize that there is much I can learn from him. (No matter how much it hurts my big brother pride to admit it)
You see, Jonah has competed in the county horse show for the past two years and has experienced great success in doing so. Not because my parents hired him a special trainer, or bought him a ridiculously nice saddle complete with hand tooling, shiny conchos, and a GPS. Jonah has experienced success because he put in countless hours practicing. I can’t count the amount of evenings I would glance up from working with a colt to see him running poles or barrels on his mighty steed Sandy. I do recall one night in particular though where little pooky as we call him, rounded a pole only to somehow catapult from the saddle and land with a mighty thud in the arena dirt. He hit hard enough that if you would look in the arena I’m pretty sure there is still a crater where he landed, but rather than get mad or cry, Jonah simply laughed and jumped up to hobble over and catch his runaway pony. Jonah laughed because to him this wasn’t practice, and it wasn’t work, to him it was just good ol’ fashion playing. Playing: something that we seem to forget how to do as we get older. After county fair season, it is flag football for Jonah. Being away at college, I have been unable to watch any of his games. Thankfully I got a call from him awhile back to keep me up to speed. After he sadly informed/apologized to me that he wasn’t filling my shoes as a lineman, and playing quarterback, Jonah went on to give me the play-by-play of all his games. After this recap he went off on a tangent about college and professional football. This recap rivaled that of any ESPN commentary I have ever watched. What was even more impressive to me was the fact that he not only knows roughly 80 times as much as I did at age 8, but knew more than I know about collegiate ball even now. He could tell me every play from the K-State game and what our QB could have done better. (This stems from the fact that Jonah thinks he could play for K-State today) This conversation has shown me one thing in particular: Jonah has a true blue passion for this sport, and I know as long as this passion continues he will be 5 times the athlete I ever dreamed of being.
So what can we learn from Jonah? We can see the obvious importance of laughing and playing; two things that should never have been left on the playground. “Playing” is a dying way for us to get away from stress, and a way for us to make mundane or monotonous tasks fun and enjoyable. We should also note how much passion his small stature contains. All too often I catch myself doing things half-heartedly, which leads to average results. If we would approach the things we love in life with half the amount of heart that my little brother has it would be shock us all to the core to see what we never knew we were capable of.
So the next time you’re in class, on the field, court, mat, or in the arena think of Jonah and never forget to Live, Laugh, and Love Like an Eight-Year-Old.
