Live By The Code: Positive Attitude
Shae sharing the Serenity Prayer at Morning Watch:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Positive Attitude, Servant’s Heart, Moral Compass, and Warrior Spirit: these are the four values that make up our Falling Creek Code. Living by the Code is what we strive for as members of the Falling Creek Community, teaching and modeling these values through our activities and interactions every day. We see examples of those in our camp community living by the Code each day, so throughout this “Live by the Code” series today and next week, we’ll be highlighting each of them. Today, we’re focusing on Positive Attitude.
Shae Trainor is a Junior at Clemson University, here for his first summer on staff while teaching sailing and fishing. He led Morning Watch earlier this week with a great message about using a positive attitude to accept the things you can’t change. He began by reciting the Serenity Prayer:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Shae described how this prayer means a lot to him, and is something he leans on when he can’t always change things in life. He shared a personal story about growing up, starting with the idea that his family was rigorous about sports and there was a lot of pressure to be good. He wanted to be great at baseball like his dad, but soon realized his eyesight was growing worse. One day he finally told his mom it was so bad that he was seeing double, and could hardly make out things an arms length away. When they went to the doctor, Shae found out he had a rare condition that would eventually cause him to go blind. He would have to have surgery to correct it.
Though this news was something out of his control, Shae said that fortunately the surgery was successful. However, the recovery journey wasn’t in his control either, and it was a long process of staying away from harsh light, keeping indoors, and not straining his eyes too much. The only thing he had control over was his positive attitude. Shae described how his friends would help him stay positive by making pirate jokes with him at school, during a time when he had to wear eye patches.
Shae dreamed of returning to baseball once recovered from the surgery, but further tests revealed that he had no depth perception. Knowing how far away the ball is or how close your teammates are is vital to baseball, and Shae was disappointed once again to find another aspect of his vision was out of his control. Shae reminded us, “Positive attitude doesn’t always have to come from yourself.” During times when it was hard for him to stay positive on his own, Shae described how his dad was his positive attitude for him. He practiced baseball every day with his dad for 6 years, taking extra time to compensate for his lack of depth perception.
Thanks to his years of dedicated hard work, practice, and positive attitude, Shae was able to earn himself a spot on a local baseball team, which became extremely successful. He helped his team win a tournament that season, and finally got to see the culmination of all those long years and hard work paying off. Shae said that while looking at his trophy, “It hit me at that moment how hard I had to work for that. I still have it right above my bed.”
“You can’t change things that happen in life, but you can always change your attitude about it,” said Shae. “With a lot of hard work and positive attitude you can do anything - Even a blind kid can win a batting competition.”
We’ll be using Shae’s story as inspiration to work hard and stay positive, not only today but the rest of the summer too. However, with all that’s on tap for this Super Saturday, that won’t be hard! It’s another great weekend at camp, full of tournaments, all-camp-games, special signups, and exciting events. We’ll tell you all about it soon!