Sports Day 2016

When I grew up my schools had team sports which I participated in from the second grade through my senior year of high school. In Beijing, my kids, at least through grammar school have a “sports day” every Spring which I’ve for the past eight years. My typical attendance consisted of arriving at the school playground around 9am which is later than work so I tended to stay up a little longer the night before. During the sports day I would sip my coffee while waiting for one of the kids to do something. It could be an opening performance, a game of soccer, or a three legged race with a parent. It was a chance to nod at other parents that I may have or may not have nodded at other such events. It was a chance to see my kids around their classmates and how the acted with each other.

This year was a bit different. The first sign was the students were requested to be at school at 5:50am and a parent must apply in advance to a ticket. Later, the made it mandatory the students be at school by 5:30am and the parents arrive at the stadium by 7:30am. Oh, I left the part out about the stadium. Since this was the 60th anniversary of the school, all campuses would gather together for sports day. They announced the crowd at 10,000 and it did seem about that. Roughly a Giants/Astros game circa 1995.

I got up at 5am and dropped off Lydia and Elisa. Aidan, who graduated from the school last year, played hookie from his middle school field trip and Ubered over with me arriving just before 8am. Traffic was bad and the kids mom showed up a bit later.

There was a fairly formal opening ceremony starting with the flag and then students marching/performing.

After the opening ceremony there were some speeches and then performances on the field. Elisa was part of a pseudo kung fu one and the troop spelled out 60 on the grass (for the anniversary).

After Elisa was done she went to the stands with her classmates and shortly afterwards the actual sports would start. 50 meter dash, 100 meter dash, high jump and so on. Lydia had signed up for the high jump. While we waiting for Lydia’s group to start, the kids mom decided that Elisa needed to go home so she left with Elisa. I waited with Aidan for Lydia’s group to start. It seemed to take forever. The person in charge of the high jump was measuring each pole position change with olympic calipers for girls who never jumped before. Let them fail fast, I’m thinking. Eventually it was Lydia’s group turn and when Lydia ran she jumped over the bar effortlessly (they all leapt over the bar like a high hurdle, no backflips here). We could not go down to the field so I got Lydia’s attention from the railing and gave her a thumbs up. She smiled back. On her next attempt she failed and after she failed she stood and watched her friend also fail. The smiled and chatted and got back in line to try again. They never looked up. That was my queue to exit stage left with Aidan and head home.