Is it possible for someone starting a race in last place to overcome and take the lead? To destroy the competition and go on to an overwhelming victory?  Sure it’s possible… but what if that someone was only 10 years old? What if that someone was a 10-year-old little girl facing high school seniors?

To enter, all she needed was to color a race car and put her number on it. But with a busy life filled with things to do, she found only minutes to color her car if she still wanted to participate.

The morning of the start of the race, there it was, in full view, her hastily colored car posted on the wall in last place. No one would even have known it was hers, no names were allowed on the cars, only numbers. The lead car sitting at the starting line, sparkling and shimmering with added glitter, every inch of the page colored with obvious flair and talent.

She could have turned around and walked out. She could have burst into tears crying how it wasn’t fair. She could have ripped her car off the wall admitting defeat.

She did none of those things.

All the drivers were called to the front of the room. None of them knowing what it was going to take to move their car from the starting line to the finish. All they did know was after all the bravado, all the talk about winning, all the talk about who was the “best” ever since last week when the assignment was given out,  there stood three GIRLS  as “drivers” with cars at the start of the race.

Instructions were handed to each driver in large envelopes. It was a scavenger hunt of sorts. Activities given mph. How “fast” you could go was up to you. Categories from math to English, science and nature, to pop culture and sport challenges.

Pick 2 people to be your “Pit Crew”. With that the race had begun.

Now, this driver is a 10 year-old little girl. She is faced with competition older, popular and even a student council president of their small charter school. She is in last place to start the race with a 20 mph deficit and a posted car everyone knows is hers that is nowhere near as colored or designed as the others.

At this point she could set her envelope down and quit, pretending she didn’t care. She could cry and run to whoever and say none of this is fair to me! Tears gaining sympathy.

Instead she assesses the overwhelming list of activities and decides right then and there a boy on the pit crew would be of value to her for some of the sports offered. Saying this fact out loud, immediately getting her a recruit! With a female friend that had already offered to be a member of her team, their engine started revving.

Our 10-year-old female driver now is fully taking ahold of the wheel, her team becoming hell bent on finishing the entire list of activities. Laser focus on the tasks at hand, ignoring the two other hudled teams plotting against her, this driver knows she has ground to make up and is not about to feel the sting of looking at last place again.

It’s the day before the final speed totals are announced. The drivers are given even more assignments that would gain them speed and possibly victory. It’s the last-ditch effort to win. It’s the final burst… take it if you feel the need for more speed!

Already having spent an entire week completing literally over a hundred assignments plus regular school work, this young driver is now faced with the decision, has her team done what was necessary to go the fastest or did she need to do more?

What is it inside a person that pushes them forward? Not everyone has what it takes to keep their foot on the gas and go. Excuses come. The reasons why giving up becomes the preferred option. Simply stating there is no reason why any extra effort should happen or that any of it even mattered at all is the easiest way out.

Excuses to lose.

Well this 10-year-old female had no excuses. She wasn’t going to lose. She didn’t see anything but the finish line and it was hers.

Extra work completed, confidence front and center, there sat her team, the only team on race day that included “fans” holding up signs rooting them on.

Underestimating the competition, the car that had started the race in the lead had dropped to last place, hundreds of mph behind. They hadn’t given it enough effort though they hadn’t given up, they just didn’t think it was going to be such a crazy race.

Second place wasn’t going to go down so easy. Feeling confident that they had done everything it would take to win, in addition to having such a great looking car, popular kids on the crew and a student council president as driver, they were sure their team would be called as the winner.

Over confidence might have led to lacking that extra push that it was going to take to beat a hungry underdog…

Shocked moans mixed with cheers erupted when it was announced they had lost by over 100 mph!

Thats when it set in. She had done it. Victory was her’s. The hard work had paid off. This 10 year-old driver with her barely colored car had gone over 900mph! There was no mistake. She had come from behind and fought her way to the finish line…and now she was holding a trophy, dancing with her team singing “Don’t believe me just watch….”

She had won, against the odds, fueled by pure Girl Power.