The Podium

Full Essay available on Substack - https://tomkooy.substack.com/p/the-podium

The interschool swimming carnival smells like a chemical accident and sounds like controlled chaos, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. This is about what happened when my nine year old daughter touched the wall first, looked up, and showed a room full of adults something we've spent years convincing ourselves we don't need. About grit, yes, but more importantly about character, the kind that can't be taught in a workshop or measured on a rubric or incentivised with a ribbon. About what it costs to give your best hours to rooms full of people who are paid to be there, and what's left for the ones who aren't.

And about driving home afterwards, looking out the window, listening to a nine year old explain nervousness like it was just another tool she had figured out how to use.

Read it here

--TK