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I started playing organized sports when I was four or five-- started out playing ragball, which led to tee-ball, then softball, then fast-pitch (comes to a total of about fourteen years. Every summer, plus three springs for school.) I ran track in junior high and my last year of high school, and played volleyball from seventh to twelfth grade.
There were tons of benefits. For one thing, I have an aggressive streak, and playing let me take that out in more constructive ways. Good coaches, and my parents, taught me sportsmanship and fair play.
I played on a volleyball team with friends this past summer and fall, and was reminded of how much I love it. Besides getting the physical exercise (and being able to serve the hell out of the ball), it was a definite bonding experience.
Entertainment-wise, I grew up with the Bengals, the Buckeyes, the Reds, and later on, the Bearcats. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of games with my parents and friends. When I visited my great-grandpa, we'd talk about Bret Boone and Barry Larkin and Sean Casey. It was awesome, the fact that we were, what? Sixty, almost seventy years apart in age, but we'd sit and talk about baseball together all afternoon.
I'm very different from my family...they're all hardcore Republican, conservative, and religious...and I'm the crazy liberal hippie. The fact that we can still bond over watching a Reds game, or cheer together for the Buckeyes is pretty awesome (unfortunately, my mom's a Steeler's fan, but hell, we still have fun with that.)
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"...for though she was ordinary, she possessed health, wit, courage, charm, and cheerfulness. But because she was not beautiful, no one ever seemed to notice these other qualities, which is so often the way of the world."
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
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