Know Your Worth, Pumpkin!

I have pumpkins showing up everywhere in my world.  The first started growing behind the golf shop in the weeds where I dump spent pumpkins every November.  Then I noticed one growing next to my driveway at home. Strange place, but I've learned that strange things happen in my world. And then yesterday, I noticed one growing at the end of the driving range. I really have no idea how that one got there.  However, when an animal or autumnal fruit or aberration shows up, I tend to research the meaning of this sign in my life. Why is this symbol or sign showing up for me right now?

The first internet search of pumpkins shared the following:

"Pumpkin is one of the more resilient fruits, finding ways to grow large and bulging amongst sparse soil and sharing nutrients along a connected vine that reaches into the ground to replenish itself. Perhaps for this reason pumpkins have become symbols of prosperity, growth, and abundance."

It seems that the pumpkin perfectly describes my current inspirations and challenges. After a  recent trip to the Northwest Women's Open in Seattle, I returned home with the desire to create connections within women's golf.  The LPGA owns the story of the Founders of the LPGA. It is a story of the thirteen women who against all odds played golf for money across the country and raised awareness that women are capable of playing one of the greatest games ever created.  On several occasions during my trip, I was pushed to acknowledge why I ultimately chose the path of becoming a PGA Golf Professional as opposed to or in addition to an LPGA Professional. I was actually an apprentice of both programs at one time as well as an MBA student and between the three it was too much to handle as a new wife and soon-to-be mother. Ultimately, the PGA path was described to me as a business school versus the LPGA path which was preparing me to be a teacher. And at the time, I was in a business mindset.

I sat with these questions and realized that despite the PGA trying to grow women's golf, the PGA doesn't own the story of the Founders. And I don't own the story of the Founders.  However, I own my own story. And every female golfer owns her story.  My story is that of healing and how the game has healed the most broken parts of me, the ones that I am most hesitant to share. And through this media also known as a blog, I intend to share those stories in hopes that maybe they help another woman tell her story. And maybe through a story, we can connect and grow women's golf organically like the vine of the serendipitous pumpkin.

So back to the pumpkin...what if these resilient fruits model my own resiliency? The underdog who played golf on a boy's team because a girl's team wasn't available. The self-deprecating soul that once won a citywide tournament at 18 years old and then did it again at 21. Oh and the person who decides to try LPGA Tour Qualifying for the sixth time at age 39.  Does it take creativity to grow large and bulging, mad physical golf skills amongst the sparse soil of female role models and sharing the nutrients of teachers and gurus who did believe and support along this connected vine, a never-ending life journey of golf that continues to reach into the ground for balance and into the air for growth and experience to replenish me, reinventing myself as player, teacher, chief grass-grower? In hopes that this pumpkin becomes a symbol of prosperity, growth, and abundance for other golfers to come.

What is your golf story?

Many Birdies,

Melissa