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The Butterfly Effect


The first choice was mine. Last Wednesday I chose to leave my classroom door open while I was in a meeting.  Because of that one action on my part, so many others have had to make choices of their own. Unbeknownst to me, that same day one of my soccer players chose to keep her purse in my room – inside a wallet with $35.

The two soccer players that went to my room and saw the open purse with the protruding wallet chose to help themselves to it. Rather than split up the money they found inside while in the classroom, they chose to do it in the secrecy of the girls’ room.

The girl that walked in on the girls in the bathroom had the choice of whether to keep quiet or tell an adult. While at school, she chose to keep quiet. When she went home, she made a different choice and told her mother. In the meantime, a couple of other players were told about the theft. They chose to keep quiet and not ‘snitch’ on their friend even when the missing wallet was discovered.

After talking to her mother, the player who discovered the theft chose to listen to her mother and confess to me all that she knew before going to the principal. I chose to take it the information to the administration. In turn, the principal made the choice to spend the time to get all the stories to agree before making the choice to suspend the girls.

In turn, the mother of one of the players made the choice for her daughter's soccer career to be over. I made the choice to let the other girl stay on the team. After the team heard her letter of apology, they chose to take the team consequence of extra laps instead of arguing it.

Unfortunately, when the girls returned to school, so-called friends began to pressure them into fighting each other.  While a fight never happened, the girls made the choice to keep it going by sending inappropriate text messages rather than ignore it and ask a trusted adult for help.

Today, more choices were made. Choices to physically hold back a friend from fighting. Choices to lie to me when asked what was going on. Choices to send a student to another school. Choices to quit the team. Choices to make a phone call to ask for help to change into the person she wants to be. Choices to let the assistant coach take over practice so I could lend an ear to a player in need.

It doesn’t matter who made the choices. What matters is the choices that were made. One tiny action on my part has impacted my entire soccer team in one way or another. At this time, I do not know the end result that my decision will bring. Whatever it is, I know we are all going to learn invaluable lessons from it. I know I have learned what seems like an insignificant choice can have long-lasting effects for many people.

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