{"id":1564,"date":"2026-09-18T08:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T08:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangormetro.com\/?p=1564"},"modified":"2026-09-08T17:05:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T17:05:59","slug":"passing-the-popsicle-stick-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangormetro.com\/?p=1564","title":{"rendered":"Passing the Popsicle Stick Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Emily Morrison<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My high school had a track around the football field, but we had no track team. Back then, in the early stone age, it was covered in grass. We had football, soccer, field hockey, basketball, baseball, softball, and wrestling, and I participated in three of those.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say \u201cI participated\u201d because that\u2019s all I did: participate. Except in softball. I grew up playing, so when spring came, I knew I\u2019d see some real minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey used to call me Hoover,\u201d I tell my kids, \u201cbecause I sucked all those popflies into my glove like a vacuum cleaner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah right, Ma,\u201d they say, and honestly, I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s true or part of my false memory syndrome my sister says I suffer from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, vacuum cleaner nickname or not, you get the point. You get good at the things you practice and sub-par at the stuff you don\u2019t. I was fine being sub-par at basketball and soccer. I wasn\u2019t going to school on an athletic scholarship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of my complacency came from my best friend, the valedictorian of our class, who \u201cparticipated\u201d right along with me. We had as much fun laughing at our own dearth of talent as any two people can have riding the pine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She still makes fun of me for asking our coach if I could \u201csit out\u201d for the last 40 seconds of a particularly hypothermic soccer game because it was less embarrassing than going through the motions of attempting to kick a ball with no feeling left in my legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year, we got it into our under-utilized sports brains that we should run more. If only we could sprint up those hills faster, outpace those girls in practice, then our coach would have to play us sooner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsflash: it wasn\u2019t our running holding us back. At least, that wasn\u2019t my friend\u2019s problem. She was always the fastest person on every team. She still is. That woman can run a 6:15 minute mile at age 47, but I digress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our problem? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our lack of coordination which, you guessed it, came from a lack of practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No amount of running laps around a grassy track could fix that, but we tried. I biked to her place (a four-minute drive) then we\u2019d run back to my house, jogging for two telephone poles, then walking two telephone poles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did we ever make it the whole way back? Can\u2019t say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real test of our endurance came at the hands of our Polish, septuagenarian gym teacher, Mr. G. He would administer \u201cthe popsicle stick test\u201d in gym class every year, and if you\u2019re old like me, you might have done this too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He gave us four popsicle sticks at the beginning of class and said, \u201cGive me one of d\u2019ese sticks every time you do a lap, and when you\u2019re outta sticks, you\u2019re done for da day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We each found\/paid a friend to take two of our popsicle sticks and called it \u201cda day\u201d two laps in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s where the story gets good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since high school, I\u2019ve completed three full marathons and eight halfs, and my best friend, the one who\u2019s currently running a 6:15 mile, runs two miles daily, sprinting the first and jogging the second. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t that astounding? We were trying to be good at the wrong things. If only we\u2019d just had a track team, maybe we wouldn\u2019t have felt so lame. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an English teacher, I\u2019m always looking for good stories to tell my kiddos, and this is one of their favorites. Why? Because sometimes it helps to be reminded that the yard stick you\u2019re measuring yourself by just isn\u2019t accurate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an old saying, \u201cIf you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re good at because you haven\u2019t tried it yet. It takes a lot of trial and error to find the right popsicle stick, but when you do, you\u2019re willing to practice it every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what are you waiting for, dear reader? Go find your own popsicle stick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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