Playing
soccer is the only hobby that throws me off the hook. I not only get to run,
juggle the ball, yell at my friends every second so we don’t lose the game and
swear all the time...but I actually get to free all the negative energy that’s
been running through my veins throughout the day.
We practice
4times a week, and we play one game every Sunday. Everybody comes to watch, the
friends, the family, so the more you show off, the better it gets by the end of
the game, because humans, specifically teenagers always look for that
admiration from those that are close to them, it’s the perfect time to get that
attention.. sometimes it turns into a game of ego, where there’s no teamplay,
and of course, we lose quite often.
We learn
from our losses, our coach understands our immature little minds, but never let
us get away with it, he gets us ready for every game, making it clear that the
consequences to any childish or egotistical behavior, will be cruel. I
personally laugh at him, because I never take anything seriously when I’m not
playing, but once we step on the field, nothing matters, everything vanishes,
the problems, the stress, the thoughts, the negativity, the fear of losing.
Winning is the only word that runs through my mind.
People look
at sports as a way or a method to be healthy, to lose weight, to enjoy the
food, to give the sweet tooth what it wants after sweating a little bit, but
the less majority, the people that’ve invested themselves into a specific
sport, know that it’s not only physical, it’s mostly mental, because your body
gives up before it empties all the energy that It’s got, and that’s when the
mental strength comes into play, that’s when you think of resisting and pushing
yourself to get a few more steps, to run a couple more yards so you don’t fail
your team, score that goal you’ve been bragging about to your family for the
past month so you don’t disappoint them, think of all the struggles you went
through, and see where you’re at, an all you can think of is “get something out of that pain”.
Soccer taught me some of this, it’s real.
When the
summer was around the corner, that’s when we usually play our last games right
before we finish school, the coach gathered us in a café, to discuss the plan
for the next few weeks, his exact same words to start off the discussion were
“no more bullshit, we are here to WIN” I smiled at him, he almost threw his cup
at me, made me shut my mouth for a second. We got to talk, we had a laugh about
our coach, how stupid he looks when he’s angry, but it was a good time to
remember what we’ve been through during this year, the struggles, the tears,
the pain, the fights, it’s astonishing to me how time runs so fast that it’s
starting to make no sense, how much time we spend complaining, talking about
what we want to do, wasting time, planning everything ahead of us, dwelling
about the past, making excuses for what we are supposed to do, while we need to
be looking at what we have instead of what we don’t have. I genuinely believe
that it’s about the mindset, the perspective, it’s how you look at your life
that triggers everything either into progress and success, or to permanent pain
and suffering. From which angle you’re looking at it?
The due
date to the match was the 18th June, so we had about 3weeks to get
ready, everybody was thrilled to play against the other team, the enthusiasm in
those training sessions was staggering, day in day out, we sweat, we yell at
each other, all of it coming out of love, no holding grudges between us. We had
no days off, and miraculously, none of us was exhausted because of the long
extreme 20days of training, all of us were fired up to beat the other team up.
The day
finally came, we played with no stress, despite the presence of the tremendous
number of the audience watching us, we had fun during the game, all went
smooth, not even nearly what we expected.
It’s about
giving it a 100%, so when the opponent comes, you’re ready for all challenges
that might come along with it. The score was 5-1, all of them were pissed, and
all I could think of was :“how does it feel to lose, when you prepare so hard
for something that you believe during your journey that success is the only way
out and failure is just a myth? Does it encourage you, or crush you?”
