My son Joey was born with club feet. The doctors said that with treatment he would be able to walk, but would never run very well. The first three years of his life was1in hospital. By the time he was eight, you wouldn't know he has a problem when you saw him2.
Children in our neighborhood always ran around3their play, and Joey would jump and ran and play,4. We never told him that he probably wouldn't be5to run like the other children. So he didn't know.
In6grade he decided to join the school running team. Every day he trained. He ran more than any of the others,7only the top seven runners would be chosen to run for the8. We didn't tell him he probably would never make the team, so he didn't know.
He ran four to five miles every day - even when he had a fever. I was9, so I went to10 him after school. I found him running 11 . I asked him how he felt. "Okay," he said. He has two more miles to go. Yet he looked straight ahead and kept12 .
Two weeks later, the names of the team 13 were announced. Joey was number six on the list. Joey had14 the team. He was in seventh grade — the other six team members were all eighth graders. We never told him he couldn't do it … so he didn't know. He just15it.
