On Frisbee and Judgement

1:57am. My Apartment in Poughkeepsie.

I was never really a sports kid growing up so my knowledge of sports in general is highly limited. Sure, I did some summer swim team and little kid t-ball but that’s about it. High school was totally devoid of sports. My parents don’t watch sports on TV and never really taught me that sports had any kind of value. That being said, ever since I got to college I’ve had far more interaction with sports than I ever did previously. Now, in this time of constant reflection, I realize that maybe I missed out.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to play in a women’s Frisbee tournament in New Jersey with a lovely group of women from Marist and SUNY New Paltz. I’ve never played women’s Frisbee before and it was an interesting first experience. We got to the field around 11am and met the girls from New Paltz. Introductions were short and game play quickly got underway, within a few points though each of us had a fitting position on the field and we all began to work as a team. Now, I’m not trying to tell some super emotional Remember the Titans tale here, all I’m saying is that for me, the kid who grew up thinking sports were just silly games with no serious value, it was a new lesson. Sports are so much more than silly games – it’s learning how to be part of a team, it’s finding your best value rather than just doing what you want to do, it’s hard work, it’s sacrifice, it’s losing with your head held high and winning with the knowledge that none of us really does anything alone.

And while I may have turned up my nose at sports way back when, this has been a lesson I’ve been learning since I started college. Don’t ever get too attached to the idea that you know something because life could change your mind. And maybe this is a great thing, maybe the most boring people on earth are the ones who decide to stop learning, the ones who never eat a slice of humble pie, the people that never change.

It’s interesting the way all the different aspects of my life seem to influence and correspond to one another. I went home after the Frisbee tournament and sat in my bedroom for a while staring up at my collage of things from Italy that hangs above my bed. I remembered how I told myself going to Italy would never change me… but it did. I remember saying to myself back in high school, sports are just silly games… but now they aren’t. This week’s life lesson probably isn’t even about sports; it’s probably more about being too quick to judge something and then changing my mind. I won’t lie, I’m a person who has a tendency towards these types of judgments but I don’t think I’m alone and that’s why I’m writing. Whether it’s a Frisbee or a trip to Italy, life changes your mind sometimes and currently I’m learning to just let it do so.