I grew up in a small town on Long Island where it was expected that every boy play on a sports team. I tried soccer, baseball and basketball before I realized my frail body and asthmatic lungs didn’t make for a great athlete. There was a point in time my parents bribed me with ice cream if I got a single basket in a game. I never did. I stopped playing sports for a while after that but when I came to Hofstra I joined the ultimate frisbee team. Looking back in hindsight, it has taught me about just as much as I have learned in my classes.
If you care, if you show conviction, you’ll get respect. And those who are better than you will go out of their way to help.
Whenever I was on a team in elementary or middle school I’d feel like a burden whenever I got playing time. My teammates never considered me an option and this hindered my desire to try harder. While I have gotten more fit and my asthma is significantly less severe, I felt the same way before starting ultimate. I went in afraid that my teammates would shut me out. However, the more I showed up to practice the more the returners strived to get me better. I spent an entire day going over my forehand throw with this really optimistic guy on the team. And having him work with me individually just gave me that extra push.
Despite how demanding the sports you play, the classes you take, and the career you work towards may be- you should never cease to enjoy them.
At my first tournament I was introduced to ultimate culture head on. I found out what it meant to get “iced” (finding a Smirnoff and having to chug it), how valuable getting to sleep in a bed is, and how important it is to cheer before a game starts. It felt unlike any sport I’ve played before. However, this punch drunk joy started to diminish when we started losing our last game of the day. I was still having fun playing, but thought my natural response should be to get upset. I expected our captain to be frustrated as well, but I looked over and saw that he wasn’t. He simply put his headphones in and skipped to the starting line. For some reason that’s my most vivid memory of that tournament.
