I am a theatre major. I have been obsessed with all things performing arts ever since I was a child. Sure, when I was in middle school I played basketball and volleyball. I even ran track! That never did stick. However, what did stick in my mind and my life was the sport of baseball and a certain little team from Chicago.
Over the weekend, things got a little wild for the world of baseball and Cubs fans everywhere. Now I didn't watch the game, but I sure did hear from everyone else who did. Although I have not followed the Cubs all season, I still felt the pride of being from a family that has supported the Cubs for such a long time. When I was younger and we visited my grandparents' house, it always seemed like my grandpa had a Cubs game on. I could never watch Disney Channel when we were at their house because of those games. As a little girl, I would get so frustrated because I did not know the rules of baseball, so therefore watching those seemingly very long televised games was pointless to me. However, when I reached middle school and learned how the game worked, I started actually watching those games with my grandpa with interest. I started to recognize why there was a lot of baseball memorabilia in the china cabinet in place of china. My mom had an old Cubs jersey that she had when she was a child and I started wearing that around once it had been passed down to me. I thought that was such a cool thing! I never played baseball or softball, but it was a safe thing to say that I became a fan of the Cubs.
By the time I started dating, we had moved in with my grandparents to help take care of my grandmother. If a boy was a Cardinals fan, or really anything other than a Cubs fan, I would always fear bringing them home! If I did bring them over, I would always say "Well, don't tell my grandpa you're a fan of the Cardinals, he'll kick you out!" Unfortunately, my grandpa passed on Easter in 2015. While he was in and out of the hospital for cancer treatments, we watched the Cubs closely to see if it would be their year, because my grandpa would always say, "I'm not going until I see the Cubs win the World Series!" It was such a large part of his life and therefore it became such a large part of ours. I like to think that although it came too late for my grandpa to see during his lifetime, that I feel a certain closeness to him through the Cubs going to the World Series. Now no matter the outcome, I know that he probably had something to do with it from a higher place.
If you're not a fan of the Cubs, or even a fan of sports, you cannot deny that my story is only one of a million. There are so many fans all over the world that have been waiting so long for this to happen. There are many fans with stories like mine. There are many fans that have made hoping for this and wishing for this their entire lives. There are so many different people in so many different places rooting for the Cubs for so many different reasons. Now I'm not a fan of sports, but I am a fan of the people and their stories. So fly the W, and fly it high, because there are so many stories to tell as to why the Cubs needed to be in the World Series this year.
