Off the Cuff Jacqueline Ross

Off the Cuff with Jacqueline Ross | November 2023

By Jacqueline Ross

Greetings, Humans,

I know God wouldn’t give me anything that I couldn’t handle, but between you and me, I hope I’m off the “strongest soldiers” list for 2024! Whew! My life over the last 14 months has been a constant battle of being up against the ropes, taking the punches, and then scaling the roughest side of the mountain!  Maybe some of you are tired of me talking about the struggles and the adversities, I can totally understand it, so can you imagine what it’s like having to constantly live it, navigate the storms, find the lesson to be learned, and try to become better because of it!?  Yeah, it can get exhausting!  Quitting is not an option, though.  We continue to endure and persevere.

Here’s a short, but profound story from a recent training day with one of my lil homies, Jaylee.  

Jacqueline with Jaylee.

We started our day and everything was going great, up until a bike malfunction.  Jaylee was in her feels that we had to call it with riding for the day.  When you can’t adjust the wind, you can adjust the sails. Well, her sadness didn’t last long as she got changed back into her street clothes, put her sneakers on and says to me, “Well Miss. Jacqueline, let’s go for a jog!”  To which I respond, “J-Bird, I am not sure if my knee can handle jogging just yet, I just started using the elliptical last week and walking on an incline on the treadmill.  I’ll power walk alongside of you.”  The response that came out of this 7-year-old’s mouth was so simple, profound, and just what I needed to be reminded of.  J-Bird replies, “but Miss. Jacqueline, you could try.”  Mic drop!  “You’re right, J-Bird, ‘I could try’…. let’s go!” 

The moral of this short story, the three-lettered word ‘try’ holds a lot of weight and sometimes you just need a 7 year old to talk to!

Forever a student,

Jacqueline