Paper Tigers

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.”

Those inspiring words come from one of my biggest heroes, Amelia Earhart, the woman and pilot famous for setting world records in flying during the early 20th century. Amelia lived up to these words beautifully. Despite the daily persecution and doubt that she faced in life, she managed to achieve almost every goal that she set—and the girl had some BIG goals. She became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (navigated as well as solo) and around the world, as well as the first PERSON to fly across the Pacific. She stared in the faces of naysayers, and proved to them that she was just as great as any pilot before her.

I have another, similar hero from an earlier time, a woman of grace, beauty, and dignity who ruled with an iron fist—Queen Elizabeth I. Like Amelia, Elizabeth had a lot of persecution and doubt that she had to overcome in order to live up to her dreams and her calling in life. Elizabeth became the first woman to successfully reign over England alone, without a man to head up the decision-making. She became an icon to the people, and won not only their trust and support, but their overwhelming devoted love. Undaunted, she filled the seat that had previously only been occupied by men, creating laws, overseeing the Church of England, funding research and theater and exploration, and even leading armies into battle.

The thing I love about both of these woman is that they saw themselves not just as women capable of doing jobs typically held by men, but as humans capable of doing anything they set their hearts on. They did not allow anyone or anything to make them believe that they could not succeed.

Queen Elizabeth explained the power of her will like this:

“Though the sex to which I belong is considered weak, you will nevertheless find me a rock that bends to no wind.”

I’d like to tell you about a girl with the will and tenacity of the Virgin Queen, and the strength and courage of Amelia Earhart. Her name is Sage Mortimer, and she is a 10-year-old, girl wrestler.

Sage’s older brother, Quentin, has been wrestling since he was 3 years old, and her dad is a coach. So, Sage pretty much grew up with wrestling being a part of her life at home. When her little brother, Talmage, started wrestling, Sage decided that she didn’t want to sit on the sidelines anymore—she wanted to wrestle too. The hard part is that Utah, where Sage lives, doesn’t have a girls’ wrestling league. This means that in order to take part in the sport, Sage has to wrestle boys. As you can imagine, the decision to wrestle boys has a negative stigma attached to it, and Sage met some persecution in making it. But this girl had big dreams! She wanted to show people what she was made of. She started wrestling in fall of 2011 and, as her mother puts it, “She took to it right away. She was a natural. She was beating boys that have been wrestling for years.”

Don’t get the wrong idea, however, Sage has had to work hard to achieve her wrestling goals. She practices 5 days a week, and competes 1-2 days a week. She sometimes has to cut weight in order to stay in a competitive weight class, a difficult thing for a 10-year-old girl. She says that is one of the hardest things about wrestling. She really doesn’t like to diet and meal plan. But she has the desire to win, and she lets this dream trump everything else.

Sage wrestles 3 different styles—Folkstyle, Freestyle, and Greco. And she wins. She works her heart out, never giving in to defeat—even when here opponents are bigger than her. And she brings home trophies. She has placed 8 times in her tournaments over the past year, including first place in the State Greco Championships and first place in Folkstyle at the Utah Super State Championships. (Incidentally, both of her brothers also won first place in their own weight classes and age groups in the Super State Championships, winning their family a spot on the local news!)

Amelia Earhart said,

“One of my favorite phobias is that girls, especially those whose tastes aren’t routine, often don’t get a fair break… It has come down through the generations, an inheritance of age-old customs which produced the corollary that women are bred to timidity.”

Sage seems to either not notice or not care that she doesn’t really have a fair break with wrestling. The fact that she has to wrestle boys is one of the challenges that keeps her going. She thrives on the fact that she can do it, and she can win. Like my feminine heroes of old, this little girl is setting her goals high, believing she is capable of anything. She’ll wrestle boys all the way up through high school, then strive to get a scholarship to wrestle for a college team, all to meet her ultimate goal of becoming like her idol, the Olympic wrestler, Leigh Jaynes-Provisor. The one major kink in Sage’s plans is that wrestling was recently cut from the Olympics, severing Sage and her brothers’ hopes with it. However, they refuse to be defeated. The family is petitioning for the sport to be revived, fighting to show that it is worthy. Until then, Sage will continue laboring every day to achieve her dreams, becoming an unbendable rock against the winds.

When life throws you a wrench, I hope that you can remember Sage. She, like Amelia and Elizabeth, is proof that the only thing holding us back from our dreams is our own unwillingness to try. Fears are paper tigers—they look threatening, but are easily torn apart.

UPDATE: Sage went on this year to win a number of matches in both national and state competitions. In October she was named Woman of the Year in Utah for wrestling, 2013, making her a permanent part of the hall of fame! What great accomplishments for someone so young!