My parents were never very big on sports. We would never go to sports events in my family, and none of us participated in team sports activities. Although our parents encouraged us to be active and physically fit, competitiveness was not really emphasized. Instead, we were taught to work together and cooperate. Although sports events do encourage teamwork, my parents believed that we could learn it in other ways. We would have family projects together, play strategy games, and even write collaborative stories sometimes.
As a matter of fact, I never even went to a professional sports event until I was about 16. My parents hated cheap beer and hot dogs and didn't really like baseball that much, so there was no point in ever going to a game. I was dating a girl, however, who was pretty into Baseball games. She would read the sports news every day, follow her favorite teams on TV, and go to see matches whenever she got the chance. I figured that taking her out to the ballgame would be a great way to impress her.
When I was going there, I expected to not like it at all. I had never enjoyed sports events on TV. They seemed really boring to me. If I wanted to see action, I could watch a martial arts movie or something like that. Watching men run back and forth, throwing or kicking balls, seemed very tame by comparison. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. There was something about actually being there that made it all worthwhile. Maybe it was being in a stadium filled with thousands of fans who really did care about the outcome of the game. You could really feel the suspense and tension, and it was hard not to get drawn into it.
Since that game, I have been much more interested in sports events. I even joined the soccer team briefly, although I was not very good at it. I will never be a big jock, but I see the value of playing team sports. Working together is all well and good, but sometimes it is fun to compete as well. As long as you keep it in mind that the outcome of a sports game doesn't really matter that much, you can enjoy the competition without letting it get out of control and dominate your life. No one wants to become one of those obnoxious sports fans!
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