"Ace"

A most lovely hearted man gave me an inspiration to write this blog with his words of kindness and blessing.  I think I meant to write it before actually, but had forgotten about it...

What "Ace" means to me... I looked it up on dictionary.com and, wow, there are so many ways I could take it and could totally make myself seem all deep and sophisticated and crap, desribing one thing or another and get all philosophical and what not...but I'm just going to keep it pretty low key and describe simply what it means to me to be an "ace."

I'm sure you're familiar with the term "As long as you try you can't fail" or "It's not about winning, but how you play the game?" Yes. Well.  'Ace' is often refered to by it's natural definition as someone who is very good at what they do.  But let's apply the term "as long as you try you can never fail." To me that has and will always say as long as you apply yourself and strive to do the best you know you can...you're an ace. It's not about passing the test, but about how hard you tried. Something schools would do better to teach their students - it's not about winning, but about the experience and what your spirit learns along the way...but I digress...  An ace is simply someone who seeks and achieves excellence in one area or another.  Not everyone can 'be the best.' It's not about that and it shouldn't be.  There are people who try and try, but still can't quite seem to "pass."  The true spirit of an 'ace' is not someone who simply excells - it is the spirit in them striving to excell and believing they have what it takes if they simply apply themselves with their mind, body, and soul - THAT is the true 'passing' as far as the pure learning experience goes.  Keep in mind this is about learning experience.  There are some tests out there that you simply do NEED to 'pass' in order to excell.  I'm not saying all of life is simply a joy ride of experiences.  Sometimes you do need to put in hard work with the sheer intention to 'pass.' 
Getting back on track: the C student settles for a C average even though he knows he has what it takes to pass as long as he applies himself.
My personal philisophy is that as long as I believe in myself and all I know God created me with the ability to do and I strive to be better - that makes me an ace as well as anyone else in my eyes that does the same.  An ace isn't necessarily someone at the top. An ace is someone with the spirit to excell. Anyone can have that spirit - winners and bench warmers.  The thing that matters most is what you do with that spirit.  Keep warming the bench or demand to be in the game and show the coach why.

And that is my report on what it means to me to be an "ace." Thank you.

- Desiree` Magee