Addie the Champion
Can Addie find the sport that is right for her? Follow this little penguin's journey to discover the gifts that make her a champion.
More than anything in the world, Addie wanted to be a winner. She wanted to be the star, the first one picked for any team. She could just imagine herself biting into that gold medal at the Olympics. Hey, a penguin can dream.
A penguin?! Did I forget to mention that Addie is a penguin? Sorry, she’s an Adelie penguin, native to Antarctica. But she still wanted to be a champion at a sport. But which one, there are so many to choose from?
Addie first thought of becoming a sprinter. Those faster than lightning speedsters seemed to be so carefree. Addie trained and trained, first waddling this way along the beach and then that way getting faster and faster. But when she tried to outpace the human tourists, they easily outstripped her without even seeming to break a sweat.
Not be discouraged, she decided instead to take up basketball. She dreamed each night of dribbling the ball down the court, time counting down, and just before the buzzer sounds jumping high in the air and sending the ball right into the hoop. She knew that she would be the team’s hero some day. So she got busy, hopping up on short ledges and then slightly taller ones. It was hard work! In the end, though, all she could do was clumsily hop a few inches in the air. This dream, too, came to an end.
Perhaps, Addie was more cut out for an artistic sport. Perhaps she could become the world’s first penguin Sugar Plum Fairy (although perhaps Swan Lake was more up her alley). She could just picture herself wearing a purple tutu with a tiara on her head, being carried onto the stage to thunderous applause. At first, ballet seemed like a better fit: she was pretty flexible and was already in a plie down to the floor. She tried for months to learn a pirouette, waddling placidly in a circle on the beach for hours at a time. She finally admitted defeat when a local marine biologist came and gave her a checkup, thinking she was sick.
Addie was starting to get seriously discouraged. She was sure that she would never find the right sport for her. Her brother Adam came to try to cheer her up. “Everyone has a gift that they have been given. You just have to find yours,” he said.
What gifts had she been given? Not speed on land or sky high jumps or graceful spins. What she was good at was catching fish. When she would leap off the high ice into the chilly water, she became as fast as a sprinter and as graceful as a ballerina. With a fresh glint of excitement in her eye, she waddled clumsily over to the ocean to begin her training anew. This time, she would be a champion.