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I Play Sports For The Team, Not For The Game

I was picked last for everything, but who cares?

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I Play Sports For The Team, Not For The Game
Johanna Giordano

I was definitely that kid who was always picked last to be on the team, and I still am. But, unlike the kids in the movies who are all sad and depressed about it, it's not that big of a deal to me. I've always been able to recognize that I simply suck at sports. For a while, I even tried really hard to do my best, but I didn't see much change or advancement in my skills, so I just stopped trying.

However, it's not like I just gave up on sports, I just accepted the fact that I wasn't very good at them, and that's how God made me. I came to a realization that I would probably never go to the Olympics, be the star athlete, win the MVP trophy, or even get a lot of playing time.

During my high school's Powderpuff game, where the girls play football and the boys cheer for us, I still couldn't even get over ten minutes of playing time, while my friends (pictured in my cover photo above) were the actual MVPs of the game, scoring pretty much all of the points.

I'm okay with it, though.

All throughout my childhood and high school, I definitely dabbled in many sports, so you can't say that I didn't try the right sports (although, I never tried basketball because I thought I was too short). I did ballet, gymnastics, cheerleading, swimming, lacrosse, and even judo, which is a martial art that pretty much no one knows about. I think that I tried so many sports because I was trying to find a sport that I was good at, but somehow, I just wasn't very good at any of them.

I didn't have good enough balance for ballet, I was afraid of the heights in gymnastics, I was dropped on my head in cheerleading, my goggles always fell off in the swimming pool, I once hit myself in the head with a lacrosse ball (don't ask how), and I kind of, maybe, sort of, accidentally punched someone in judo.

So, I think it's safe to say that I didn't exactly excel in any of those sports, along with the fact that I spent a lot of time on the bench or in the last swimming lane, which everyone knows is reserved for the slowest.

Somewhere between the swim team and the lacrosse team, I realized that I could quit these sports and just give up completely. But, as I thought about quitting, I realized that I would miss my teammates a lot, so I stuck out that last year on the bench and told myself to just have fun.

I finally discovered that the reason why I kept looking for new sports wasn't that I wanted a cool trophy, although that would have been nice too, but because I loved the memories, friends, and laughs that I shared with my teammates.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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