Sports and Me

I do not like sports.

Now, when I say this aloud, people have one of several reactions. The first being, shock and horror. Their face crinkles into this twisted mass of near hysteria. They no longer want to even touch me, as though not liking sports might be catching. The second reaction is pity. Their face melts into a shade of melancholy. They instantly desire me to be their charity case. The last reaction is one of slight arrogance. These people actually raise their chin and gaze at me with a look of , "Oh, she just does not know."

I prefer none of those reactions. I just don't like sports. Once, I even passed up a chance at a Hawaiian vacation because I could not fake liking sports enough to go there and sit through a Bowl game. If you try and take me to a sporting event, I develop "situational ADD". Try as I might, I will not focus on one thing about the game. I've tried, I've been to major sporting events, watched friends and family play various games, and the end result is always the same. When I'm asked, "How was the game?" my answer is always the same. "Oh, it's over?"

I am the farthest thing from a sports enthusiast. However, since that May day, I have applied several of sports greatest lessons to my life.

On that May day, I fully comprehended that for every single day after I was going to have to "bring my A game." Or, I was going to have to exhaust myself trying to. Sports people have this drive within them. They desire that great game. They are always reaching for it, so at every practice, they work towards it. I feel the same way about my life. I feel like every day is similar to practice.

I know my end result is to be happy and at peace. My end result is to have two exceptional children who don't need a lot of therapy. Gone were my days of half-hearted attempts. Gone were my days of constantly putting tasks off until tomorrow. Every day I proceed to "bring my A game" to whatever situation I encounter that day. It is a work in progress. I am often exhausted by it. But, I feel if I become sloppy, we'll never reach that end result, we'll never have that perfect game.

Though I know very little about sports, I do know this, sometimes the game plan might need to be changed mid-game. Now, this could be a metaphor for my entire life, but it relates to my every day life, too. I soon realized I was going to have to become a whole lot more flexible than I had ever been before. Quickly, I realized that things weren't always going to go according to plan, and , therefore, I'd have to think on my feet, adjust, and... change.

Change and I have never been friends. Therefore, morphing into a person who could adapt to something as simple as a day of errands not going well, and switch an entire plan around so that the day could end well, has not been easy. This must be hard for sports people to learn to do, too. It really is mind over matter. But, you know, usually even the slightest change, can result in winning the game.


The last sports lesson is perhaps my favorite one of all. "There's no crying in baseball."

Prior to that may day, I was a crier. Just ask my parents, or my sister. I would cry about everything. I cried about things that made me very sad, and about sappy commercials. I bawled when things didn't go my way, and when Prince changed his name to a symbol. There is even a picture of me as a little girl, holding a baseball bat, crying.

That May day, I gave myself one good, long, hard cry and then I stopped crying. I actually heard Tom Hanks shrill voice declaring, "There is no crying in baseball", and I thought, "He's right." If I was going to make it and have any dignity left within me, I had to stop crying. So, I did.

Since then, I have cried only twice. Those cries are for another post.

So to all my sports-loving family and friends, all these years, I have been watching and learning. I do know the most important things about sports. I do know how the game of life is played.

And, finally to Elana, my sweet friend, thank you for giving this post the direction it needed.