From My Sketchbook: Portrait #5

Wow, this one took a long time to finish! (I know, I'm sounding like a broken record, right?) Seriously, though, I'm afraid I let my perfectionist take control of the pencil for this portrait. Although the results are good, Little-Miss-Perfectionist gets hung up way too much on tiny details and that results in large amounts of time to get just one portrait done.

Slam Dunk

I feel as if this blog has been going through an identity crises, if only in my own view of it. About every day I get a different idea of the theme and topic of posts that should go on here. A geeky blog about T.V. shows, movies, and video games that I like? An inspirational blog about what I learn through my walk with God? Reading other great blogs, such as Ann Voskamp’s, tempts me to want to make one just like theirs, ‘cause theirs are soo good! Hence the constant circling of ideas in my head of where I could go with this blog, which means not a single post actually gets made. But I believe I’ve finally made up my mind. I’m taking this blog back to where it was originally; a place for me to write about my life.

And now I put my fingers, rusty from staying away too long, back to the keyboard; welcome to my blog about my life.

The ball pounds the ground. Feet blur as players run hard for the opposite end of the court. The crowd cheers; holds its breath; watches, completely absorbed. Some call out encouragements, others argue with referees about a call. A solitary player leaps high, back arching, ball grasped firmly. For a moment, the whole place goes silent. Then the sound of the orange rim vibrating can be heard. The whole place erupts with cheers. Slam dunk. Even the players go wild with excitement.

Sports. Although I grew up with boys, sports were one of the few things that I refused to be interested in, even if I secretly was. I had always prided myself on my stubbornness to be disinterested in it… until now. The other day, when I checked out a book from the library titled “Rules of the Game,” I felt like I was betraying a part of myself. But something happened about a year ago that changed my views on at least one sport. 

Basketball happened. 

Our team had made it to state, and the upcoming game was talked about by everyone. It just so happened that my little sister and I, along with Mom, were heading up to the cities that same day as the game. It had originally been my suggestion to go to it as long as we were up there. A couple of my friends were on the team and I was curious about it. I’ve long held that I’m a collector of memories and experiences; always eager to try something new or go somewhere different for the sake of the experience so that I can have a wider range of subjects to write about. So a high school tournament basketball game sounded interesting, if only for curiosity’s sake.

I went to the game with the usual survival gear that I bring to any sporting event; mainly a notebook and pen. But by the end of the game, I realized I hadn’t even thought about using them. I had found basketball to be surprisingly exciting and fast paced, and even though I had little understanding of what was going on, it was fun to watch the energy of the players.

So that’s how I ended up in the library, checking out a book about sports rules, in the middle of this year’s basketball season. After going to a couple more games, I was tired of not really understanding why fouls were called or any of the other more in depth rules. All I understood was that the one team tries to get the ball to the hoop to score while keeping the other team from doing the same. There were only four pages in the book about basketball, but I studied them - if not intently - with considerably more interest than I’ve given other sports in the past.

To summon up the scattered thoughts of a rambling mind, basketball has held my interest longer than any other sport has. I suspect that this is mainly because it’s my friends that I get to go watch and cheer on; it’s not necessarily the actual game itself. But I am glad that at least for a season I have been able to step past my prejudices against sports and be able to experience what it’s like to have a team to support, and actually look forward to watching another game.