What Does the College Football Playoff National Championship, the Cheer Netflix Documentary and Michelle Obama All Have in Common?

This essay originally appeared in the Morning morning newsletter on 1/20/20.

Last week, I watched Joe Burrow throw five touchdowns and set a record for passing yards, bringing LSU its first national title since 2007. Joe’s accomplishments of leading his team to win a national title and being awarded the Heisman Trophy are definitely impressive. But you know what’s more impressive? His persistence as he faced rejection after rejection from recruiters, as he was told he wasn’t good enough to play at Nebraska (his No. 1 pick) and as he patiently waited a turn (that would never come) at Ohio State.

I also finally finished Becoming and reflected on Michelle Obama’s path of going to college and law school and eventually becoming a lawyer at a prominent firm in downtown Chicago. When she surprisingly found herself unfilled in the career she had dreamt about for so long, she sought out opportunities with non-profits, as the associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago and vice president for Community and External Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center, gaining skills along the way that would eventually help her in her role as the first African-American First Lady of the United States. 

And I couldn’t take my eyes off of Coach Monica Aldama in the new Netflix documentary Cheer. Monica, who has a B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the University of Texas at Tyler, had aspirations to be a CEO in NYC. But on a chance, she decided to apply for a cheer coach position at the junior college in her hometown of Corsicana, Texas. Now, 24 years later, Monica has led her team to a multitude of NCA junior college division national championships and grand national titles, making Navarro College the only junior college program to win multiple NCA Grand National Titles (intentionally not saying the numbers to not give away any spoilers!). 

I thought about these three individuals all throughout the week. And you know what I decided I admire most about them? Their ability to swerve.

You see, I personally feel much more comfortable with a deliberate flick of the turn signal, cautious look over my shoulder and perfectly executed transition over to the left lane. “Swerving” just downright makes me nervous.

In the cases of Joe, Michelle and Monica, it would have been easy – and logical – for them to continue down the paths they thought they were “supposed to be” on. But in hindsight, we see that their willingness to embrace a swerve ended up bringing them some of their biggest accomplishments. 

Each day we have the opportunity to write and build a little more of our story. And one day, we may decide to swerve and head down an entirely new path that provides us with more goodness than we can even imagine in return. I hope that when that happens, we remember the stories of Joe, Michelle and Monica.

I hope that instead of shying away of the swerve, we use their stories to give us the confidence needed to throw caution to the wind, take that leap and place more value in our ability to figure it out than the need to see a safety net below. 

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