What. A. Weekend.
This weekend is going to be a core memory for me. It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to being a father.
As many and most of you have come to know, my Ava-Bean is the light of my life. I’ve always wanted a daughter, and she’s one of the best surrogate ones I could’ve ever been blessed with.
She surpassed my wildest expectations this weekend not only in her performance, but in her resiliency. In the growth I’ve seen her show mentally. Her ability to deal with adversity. Exhaustion. Anxiety.
In scanning for a song for tomorrow’s post, I randomly clicked on this one, and felt a resonance in it’s relation to this weekends events, and specifically today’s!
The song serves as a wish for her future and honestly those of her teammates over the years that I’ve come to know and love because of their proximity to my world (ha, literally my life, and figuratively, Ava). I’ve become invested in so many young athletes over her career in soccer and track that I feel like I’ve coached 100s of kids in a small way. I’ve felt honored to see some of my photography featured on their socials.
My hope for my Ava-Bean though? I hope she forever remains the formidable, adorable, confident, loving, hilarious, and authentic person she is.
The lyrics, in their entirety. May they be a foreshadowing of her, and those kids’, futures.
“Born to be rising, woken by the crack of dawn, sworn to survival, even with your shackles on, time for the showdown, lighting that fire never goes out, climbing so high let ’em know now, know your name, are you ready for the call?, feel the urge in side you wanting to win, it’s pulling you in, ready for it all?, if there’s any moment, now is the one, are you ready for the call?, making history won’t settle for less, the best of the best, heroes never fall, when the challengers align, let ’em come, we belong with the fearless, we belong with the brave, when the world hears us, let ’em know our name, this our legacy, this is our destiny, there is no stopping the champions, we will rise, we will rise, we will rise, today we turn the tide, break the gates, break the door down, whatever’s in the way is getting torn down, best not pick the other side beyond your surest doubts, if you ain’t know it then you should know it now, one tap, one tap, one tap, one dub, my team do enough, ain’t a fear that’s covered, guess you gotta study, all the pressure we applied, come take a dive in the tides I’m under, come check the rise that refined my hunger, here’s a little wave on yo way down, everything we tried to undermine was applied to my brother, our time’s coming any day now, no winner if it ain’t us, better pay up, made the battle our own, I don’t ever show ’em any fear, better steer clear, I don’t test the water where the winners all dove, naw, I couldn’t relate to that with my faith, even if the height’s too tall, all those who ain’t with me is in the way, but tell me, are you ready for the call?, feel the urge inside you wanting to win, it’s pulling you in, ready for it all?, if there’s any moment, now is the one, are you ready for the call?, making history won’t settle for less, the best of the best, heroes never fall, when the challengers align, let ’em come, we belong with the fearless, we belong with the brave, when the whole world hears us, let them know our name, this is our legacy, this is our destiny, there is no stopping the champions, we will rise, we will rise, we will rise, today we turn the tide.
Ava-Bean Rae McAuliffe
2024 NYSPHSAA Track and Field Championships
4th place Girls Division 2 400 meter dash
5th place Girls Division 2 200 meter dash
6th place Girls Federation (entire state) 400 meter dash
Be good, do good.
everything, etc. 