Claimed:Motivation - Saul Hackett [Final 10/10]

[Renomitsu 934]

Motivation - Saul Hackett

 

 

“Oh, c’mon, Saul!”

 

“What, I showed you I can do it, right?”

 

“Yeah, but do you understand it?”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“Saul, if you can’t teach it, you don’t understand it.”

 

Every time he gathers up his equipment, Saul thinks back to one of the fondest memories he had of his older sister – one where he, the child he was, fought her wisdom. She was arrogant, or so he had once believed; who vested her with the authority to indisputably discern what he understood, after all? Her age – sixteen at the time – gave her barely any more life experience than he had at fourteen. Saul fought her influence tooth-and-nail, the rebellious teenager stereotype burning strong within him.

 

And yet it took until her untimely death for him to realize how right she was.

 

Identity

 

Saul’s tale is invariably a two-person story.

 

Henrik and Kaarin Hackett brought baby Saul into the world in Port McNeill, BC – a diminutive town of no more than three thousand. Just two years before, they gave birth to Adrienne, a beautiful girl with a spark of genius and a penchant for hockey that would make themselves apparent before she reached five years of age. Saul was obstinate, especially as a child – he learned how to use the word “no” in his infancy, and was defiant of his well-intentioned parents’ requests earlier than most – and passion was his governing quality.

 

Saul did what you might expect from a normal child – wearing his parents down by running around the house, crying profusely when his own stubbornness led to the tiniest of scratches, staying away from girls because of their “cooties” – right down to the antagonistic relationship he had with his sister. As the younger brother of a brilliant young athlete, Saul always felt as though he was being compared to Adrienne; his grades in language arts could have been “almost as good” as hers, or his performance in math “needing work” to reach the level of his sister. At first, he worked relentlessly to eventually edge his older sibling out in something, anything, but he realized soon enough that it was of little use. She was more insightful, clever, agile, empathetic – to put it simply, she was better than him. As a result, he tried to do things that would differentiate himself from her; he picked up American football in a tiny regional league, opting to use his physicality and size in addition to his wits and instinct to prove his worth.

 

 

This tided him over temporarily; in high school, however, he realized that his passion was gone. He played American football out of spite for his parents’ adoration for his sister; he performed passably in school so he wouldn’t be compared as frequently to his sister; he picked up hockey early on, but dropped it because he didn’t want another reason to be compared to his sister. In trying to branch out to an activity that would finally end all of the comparisons, he lost his defining trait, and therefore became the same as virtually everyone else. Perhaps he didn’t have a spark of genius; perhaps he didn’t have the talent for hockey intrinsic to his sister; but, at the same time, maybe he didn’t have to give up everything that made Saul himself.

 

Growing Up

 

Adrienne Hackett had made a name for herself in multiple ways: she maintained a 3.9 GPA, took a number of International Baccalaureate courses, and was a star forward on the high school hockey team, impressing with both her puck management and scoring abilities while averaging well over three points per game. She drew the attention of a number of professional hockey organizations, but intended to attend university, prioritizing her “education, and therefore her future” instead of wild dreams of playing professional hockey – this didn’t stop the press and scouts from investigating young Adrienne, however.

 

At this time, Saul was trying to piece together exactly what motivated him. He performed passably as part of the basketball and hockey teams, but felt as though they were essentially guesses at what could intrinsically push him forward. His performance was a reflection of his personal investment – he averaged 10 points, 3 assists, and 8 rebounds on the basketball team, and leveraged his physical stature to become a passable defenseman on the hockey team. Academically, he made a rapid ascent in his first year of high school, taking after his sister instead of pushing her away. Spurred on partially by his lackluster performance in years six through eight and significantly by his sister’s concerns for her own future, he realized that even if he hadn’t found what fundamentally motivated him, he should at least set a solid foundation for whatever it is he would do.

 

Saul came to respect his sister, in the same way so many others had. Improving (or really, establishing) a relationship with Adrienne had a rocky beginning, with Saul initially failing to understand her thought processes and feeling that what she did was excessive and unnecessary. Why should he have to be able to teach someone else in order to show that he himself understood a concept, after all? Certainly, being able to solve problems about simple Mendelian genetics was enough to get an A in one quarter of biology; it didn’t take a robust proof to show how alternate interior angles had the same measurement. Initially, his frustrations were outwardly apparent, and his sister simply dismissed them as “part of growing up” – a fact Saul now acknowledges as correct. He was passionate, occasionally hot-headed, direct, and reactive – she was calculated, organized, and precise. Saul began to see that his and his sister’s “styles” of learning weren’t irreconcilable: instead, they were complementary, working synergistically instead of antagonistically.

 

And disaster struck.

 

Understanding

 

Adrienne was comfortable in her senior year, with full knowledge that she would be attending McGill University on a full scholarship, intending to play hockey as a walk-on instead of on an athletic scholarship. She passed away just weeks before her eighteenth birthday, the victim of a seemingly non-fatal car accident paired with an un-diagnosed nervous system condition. The community rallied around the Hacketts, providing their sincerest sympathies; but the fact of the matter was that Adrienne was dead, and nothing was bringing her back – not even a painstaking, hours-long, but ultimately fruitless emergency procedure to restore her consciousness.

 

Saul was overcome with grief at the news of her death. More than a decade and a half into his life, he had finally matured and did not simply acknowledge, but appreciated the qualities differentiating him from his sister – and she would never know it. He loved her patience, her unwavering idealism in the face of his anger and frustration, even if this generosity was the cause of his annoyance in their formative years. Even though he previously despised her for her apparent perfection in sports and academics, he had taken her teachings to heart – and he felt as though he had developed psychologically more under her tutelage than with anyone else.

 

 

He knew that depression was the last thing that she would want him to fall prey to following her death; and Saul recovered, becoming stronger instead of crumpling under the stress. Assuming the mantle of his sister, Saul pursued academics and performed on the hockey team with a seemingly eternal flame – but with his own flair. His methods were often brash, but resourceful; his play on the ice physical, but adaptive and more refined. When he graduated, he committed to the University of Alberta and attended on a full athletic scholarship, earning a spot as top-four defenseman as soon as he stepped on the campus rink. In time, he would earn a CIS National Championship with the Golden Bears, and frequently made sports news with both technically-sound and exceptionally physical hits on opposing forwards.

 

The young defenseman’s tenacity and passion were palpable – but more importantly, he served as a mentor and leader to the university’s younger defenders in his third year of college. Saul’s devotion knew no bounds – he knew he had to carry the burdens of his sister in addition to his own, and as a result, had groomed the following generation of Golden Bears for future success. After that year, however, he finished his degree – an honors degree in biological education – and declared for the VHLM.

 

A rare, but recent press conference asked of Hackett: “What motivates you?”

 

He responded as follows:

 

“Whenever I go home, I ask myself: ‘Have I done everything I can? Did I leave everything I had out on the ice?’

 

I struggled for the longest time to find something – anything – that would motivate me. People would tell me, ‘if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life,’ and so I fought desperately to find what that was – but I never could.

 

I buy into the idea that if you love what you do, you work all day, every day, harder than anyone ever has, because nothing can take that motivation, that drive, away from you. You can never expect doing what you love to be convenient or simple – hell, you might hate yourself at times – because you want to be the best, and even being good is never simple.

 

When it comes to what you love, just being ‘good enough’ will never be ‘good enough.’ If you ever want to be worth a damn – to your family, to your friends, to those looking up to you – you have to be able to look in the mirror and be proud of who’s staring back.”

[Toast 887]

Overview: 5/5 - Damn, that was unexpected. Emotional and fantastic writing. You just picked up a fan, because I'll certainly be following to see who you do in the minors. Really, great work here.

 

Grammar: 3/3 - I didn't spot anything, could've been because I was distracted by the solid background haha.

 

Presentation: 1/1 - Pretty stuff.

 

Over 1000 Words? 1/1 Yep

 

Overall: 10/10

[CowboyinAmerica 2,889]

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