I scored a goal!

There are two categories of people.   One is the type who take up sports because they enjoy it and they are usually good at it. The other is where people take part in sports because they are forced to and are usually not all that great at sports. I guess I fall under the second category. When I was in seventh grade, football was a major craze as the popular FIFA was going on. It was an important match and for some strange reason, my name ended up in a list with the names of all the main players for the big event. I did not know how that happened but what I did know was that if your name was on the list, there is nothing you could do but play. I also knew that this was definitely not going to be a walk in the park.

Practice was really embarrassing for me as I was a huge mess. I was extremely clumsy and I am pretty sure that with the experience and skill that I had back then, a blind monkey tied to a wheelchair could have beat me! I practiced a lot as I did not want my very talented team to lose because of me. But practice was a nightmare. It left me tired and in excruciating pain. The ball was more like a 200 pound bomb to me and I did not even know a single rule to begin with. Even though I made a complete fool of myself, I still tried as hard as I possibly could and my teammates were very supportive. They taught me every single rule, they showed me many tricks and they gave me a lot of useful tips. By the end of each practice session, I did get a little better and I was not scared of the ball anymore. I could finally kick the ball two feet away from me!

The day arrived- the game. I was sweating all over, breathing hard. This was when I knew the real meaning of 'heart coming out'. The game started and it went pretty well and I started feeling a little confident. After a while, I felt so confident that I decided to score a goal! So I put all my strength together and tackled everyone though not with much ease. My vision was blurry, my heart was pounding and the crowd was cheering - I scored a goal! But just as I was to do a happy dance, my opponents hugged me and started to cheer for me. I had scored for the other team!

Even though it was not the game that I had hoped for, it turned out to be a pretty good game, a game that I would never forget. I had done something that I had never done before and that made me feel pretty good about myself. And it did teach me two things. Practice makes you (almost) perfect and looks before you score!