Eye of the Tiger

You can teach them good manners, but make no mistake, all kids are born hard-wired to be who they are at their core from day 1. Lucy Jane Sanborn is...a competitor. 

We didn't teach her to be this way, Amie and I are not particularly competitive, and there's no other explanation for it other than it was in her source code upon delivery. 

Watching Lucy run track is where this data can be captured in its rawest form. She was always fast, but she is fastest when there is someone lined up against her and a finish line some distance away. 

The effects of this are both good and bad. 

On the one hand, losing a race (or a softball game, or a basketball game) can send her into a bad mood for the whole rest of the day. Her siblings just don't have that reflex and reaction. 

On the other hand, she's always eager to stare down a challenge. I remember her track coach telling me a story a couple years ago when she was in the 2nd grade. She was at a track meet and sitting with the other girls having a snack in between races. The coach needed an additional runner for a 3rd grade boys race but didn't have enough show up that day. He walked over to Lucy and asked, "do you want to run against the 3rd grade boys?" And he said she immediately paused, looked up at him (with graham crackers falling from the sides of her mouth) and said calmly, "yeah I do." 

That's Lucy Sanborn in a nutshell.