Shelby Manning (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shelbycobra) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
muserevival2016-09-21 10:28 am
shelbycobra) wrote in muserevival2016-09-21 10:28 am
Entry tags:
127.2.2 - quote
"I have learned that there is more power in a good strong hug than in a thousand meaningful words."
They're sitting on the patio of the restaurant at the hotel, having lunch and mimosas that it's probably too early for, and somehow the talk has turned to what got her to where she is today. To be honest she knows the 'somehow' is probably her. All of Shelby's life revolves around racing and therefore most of her conversations do as well. She doesn't exactly have a lot to talk about not to mention that her brain has replayed the last few laps at Sonoma over and over again since they happened.
"I think the biggest thing I learned is that I have to give up control," Shelby tells Chris, taking a drink and then a long look at the beach. "I thought that I was the driver and I was the one going to win and if you're going to take responsibility for winning, you have to take responsibility for everything else. I put it all on my shoulders and I was wrong to do that on so many levels."
When she looks back on those first two years of her career she can barely recognize herself now. Not that they weren't rewarding or that she was so terrible. But she was just so young and in a different place in her life, one that was so myopic and so damn desperate to be the star she had trained herself to be since she was ten years old. Now she's thirty and she has other things on the horizon to break up the view, like the guy who reaches across the table and takes her hand because he can tell she's got that contemplative look on her face.
"I had to learn to allow other people to step up," Shelby continues. "To know that sometimes the best thing for me to do is to not to do anything. Shane calls the races and the big reason I won that first title was I stopped arguing calls and just completely trusted him not to kill me. He may have tried, but obviously it didn't work."
And she can laugh because at least now, this year, she and her strategist got through sixteen races without any more threats to hit one another. Perhaps they're past that. Perhaps she's past a lot. Like realizing that just because she's not jumping into everything doesn't mean she can't have an opinion, and having an opinion doesn't mean she needs to always do something about it.
"It's been hard sometimes," she confesses, "but it's also been a lot less stressful. I sleep easier at night. And I feel more like I belong now than I ever did before."
Because she's letting other people in more. Wanting to be part of a team instead of the lone wolf who happened to have a team working around her. She left Indianapolis looking for the missing piece of her career and undoubtedly she found it, because she's got seven more first place trophies and two Astor Cups to show for it. That missing piece wasn't that she couldn't drive like she believed. It was that she had to stop driving and just ride.
"So yeah," she finally says, turning her attention back to Chris before she rambles any longer. "That's what got me to being a champion. Everybody around me. Turns out sometimes you just need a hug."
After all, that's still one of her favorite moments of this year. Not one of the six wins or the seven Verizon P1 Awards. Finishing in second place at Phoenix, hopping out of the car giggling in disbelief and getting that huge hug from Shane. Because they had worked hard to be ready for that track and it had paid off. And because in that moment they were just so purely happy. It wasn't just about winning; it was about loving what they do, and doing it together. That was what she missed before, and now that she has it she's never letting it go.
--
Shelby Manning
Need For Speed OC
667 words
They're sitting on the patio of the restaurant at the hotel, having lunch and mimosas that it's probably too early for, and somehow the talk has turned to what got her to where she is today. To be honest she knows the 'somehow' is probably her. All of Shelby's life revolves around racing and therefore most of her conversations do as well. She doesn't exactly have a lot to talk about not to mention that her brain has replayed the last few laps at Sonoma over and over again since they happened.
"I think the biggest thing I learned is that I have to give up control," Shelby tells Chris, taking a drink and then a long look at the beach. "I thought that I was the driver and I was the one going to win and if you're going to take responsibility for winning, you have to take responsibility for everything else. I put it all on my shoulders and I was wrong to do that on so many levels."
When she looks back on those first two years of her career she can barely recognize herself now. Not that they weren't rewarding or that she was so terrible. But she was just so young and in a different place in her life, one that was so myopic and so damn desperate to be the star she had trained herself to be since she was ten years old. Now she's thirty and she has other things on the horizon to break up the view, like the guy who reaches across the table and takes her hand because he can tell she's got that contemplative look on her face.
"I had to learn to allow other people to step up," Shelby continues. "To know that sometimes the best thing for me to do is to not to do anything. Shane calls the races and the big reason I won that first title was I stopped arguing calls and just completely trusted him not to kill me. He may have tried, but obviously it didn't work."
And she can laugh because at least now, this year, she and her strategist got through sixteen races without any more threats to hit one another. Perhaps they're past that. Perhaps she's past a lot. Like realizing that just because she's not jumping into everything doesn't mean she can't have an opinion, and having an opinion doesn't mean she needs to always do something about it.
"It's been hard sometimes," she confesses, "but it's also been a lot less stressful. I sleep easier at night. And I feel more like I belong now than I ever did before."
Because she's letting other people in more. Wanting to be part of a team instead of the lone wolf who happened to have a team working around her. She left Indianapolis looking for the missing piece of her career and undoubtedly she found it, because she's got seven more first place trophies and two Astor Cups to show for it. That missing piece wasn't that she couldn't drive like she believed. It was that she had to stop driving and just ride.
"So yeah," she finally says, turning her attention back to Chris before she rambles any longer. "That's what got me to being a champion. Everybody around me. Turns out sometimes you just need a hug."
After all, that's still one of her favorite moments of this year. Not one of the six wins or the seven Verizon P1 Awards. Finishing in second place at Phoenix, hopping out of the car giggling in disbelief and getting that huge hug from Shane. Because they had worked hard to be ready for that track and it had paid off. And because in that moment they were just so purely happy. It wasn't just about winning; it was about loving what they do, and doing it together. That was what she missed before, and now that she has it she's never letting it go.
--
Shelby Manning
Need For Speed OC
667 words