basketball
It hit me my junior year in high school that I had no shot at playing college ball. I went to one walk-on tryout at San Angelo State University after my senior year but I was out of my league. By that time I was no longer harboring any grand delusion that I was the next Michael Jordan.
But that reality didn't quench my love for the game. Besides the two years I spent in Ft. Worth after seminary and my first year here in New York City, I've played organized basketball since the third grade. Currently, I play in a rec league in Manhattan. My teammates are three businessmen, two journalists for the Council of Foreign Affairs, a struggling actor/comedian, and a web designer. We're actually pretty good. (It's often noted that we're good only because a minister is on the team and that must mean that God is on our team as well.) Once a week I lace up my sneakers (and sadly, my ankle braces), head to a high school gym in Manhattan and lose myself for an hour with this cast of characters that would have never known each other had it not been for basketball.
What about you? Do you have an activity that you've loved your whole life in which you still participate? An activity that allows you to meet others that you would have never met had it not been for the activity?
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But that reality didn't quench my love for the game. Besides the two years I spent in Ft. Worth after seminary and my first year here in New York City, I've played organized basketball since the third grade. Currently, I play in a rec league in Manhattan. My teammates are three businessmen, two journalists for the Council of Foreign Affairs, a struggling actor/comedian, and a web designer. We're actually pretty good. (It's often noted that we're good only because a minister is on the team and that must mean that God is on our team as well.) Once a week I lace up my sneakers (and sadly, my ankle braces), head to a high school gym in Manhattan and lose myself for an hour with this cast of characters that would have never known each other had it not been for basketball.
What about you? Do you have an activity that you've loved your whole life in which you still participate? An activity that allows you to meet others that you would have never met had it not been for the activity?
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posted by jch at
11:12 AM
3 Comments:
SCrapbooking. I got my first camera - a Kodak 110 - when I was 10, and immediately went to cutting up pictures and glueing them to pieces of wood. That was the early 80s, when decoupage was all the rage! Since then, I've become less of a craft scrapper and more of a family historian scrappyer, and through that, I've met people all over the world who share my passion. I once drove from from Fort Worth to Winnipeg to visit a scrapbooking friend who was dying in the hospital. Last fall, one of my best scrapbooking friends flew from Austrailia to come scrap with me and other friends. Scrapbooking helped me find my calling at Fortress. It gave me a new career - my dream job. And even though it's what I spend 8 hours a day doing, it's still my favorite hobby. How many people can say that? :)
Great question. A few hobbies keep me sane, but mountain biking is probably the most important. It's a very social experience and takes me places you just can't go otherwise. Some of my closest friends over the past 12 years have been my riding buddies. We climb, descend, puke, pray, crash, then do it all again the next week.
-Russ
I wish. I love flag and even tackle football. We used to play with my church friends every saturday when I was in high school. I regret almost everyday that I didn't play organized. (i take the theory of barry sanders that said "if they can't grab your flag, they'll never tackle you). I loved playing because I was small and underestimated and I loved being picked last because I would only go in and score 5 touchdowns, play shutdown corner and dominate.
But through the realities of my job its hard to keep a normal schedule and join a team. Maybe one day I'll settle down a little more and join one.
in fact, maybe I will.
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