One thing I’ve learned is that working with children can either ruin baby names for you or give you the greatest names in history
For the longest time, I’d sent random names to my mom and asked her if she liked them, and we agreed on one particular one over all the others.
Amara
And when I started working as a youth volleyball coach, I met a 13 year old girl named Amara
We didn’t have the best relationship starting off. She was disruptive, didn’t pay attention, and overall harder to work with than most.
But over the six months that I coached her, I saw the most incredible thing happen.
The first day I started to see her as she really was, she came up to me and her head coach, and cried to us. She apologized for interrupting practice, offered to do better, and sobbed in front of us both.
I have never cursed the pandemic harder bc all I wanted to do was hug this little girl and tell her that she was just a kid, and it’s okay to be one.
After that day, we saw so much improvement. She helped other athletes, trained extra hard, helped with coaching demonstrations, and even joined mentorship programs.
Now I’m honestly so honoured to think that my child could be named after such an amazing kid. Someone who took it upon herself to better not only her own game, but the people’s around her.
I am honoured to have met you, Amara.











