When I was growing up, I played little league baseball for my town from first grade all the way up to about the beginning of fourth grade. I was never really good though, but I think it was because I never wanted to practice outside of our scheduled practices with the team. However, I was convinced I was going to play in the MLB when I grew up. Eventually I left that phase.
Then in fifth grade I started playing recreational basketball at the Boys and Girls Club. Again, I wasn’t very skilled and no one every passed me the ball. So essentially, I rode the bench, but our team made it to the championship, so I couldn’t really complain. That ended shortly thereafter but I would play pick-up at the courts after school and it was always fun.
Once I got to high school, I really started getting involved in sports. I went to a boarding school in Pennsylvania, and, like most boarding schools, I was required to play two competitive sports each year. Freshman year I played soccer, basketball, and baseball. As the years went on I kept up with basketball and baseball. The baseball team was small, so we only had enough for a varsity team. I ended up riding the bench until junior year and by senior year I was starting in outfield. As for basketball, I never made it up to Varsity, considering my school recruits for basketball and we had players who are projected to be top 10 in the NBA draft next year only after one year of college. Still, I became captain of JV basketball junior year and again for senior year. I really appreciated being forced to play sports because it allowed me to enhance my team building skills, learn to work as a team, and, in general, improve my skills in various sports.
With that being said, over these last view weeks, I have been struggling. This seems like a challenge never seen before. There have been a lot of up and downs within my group and I feel like everything I’ve learned and put into practice has vanished. I find myself getting frustrated and disappointed at myself for not being able to understand and perform like I usually do. It’s sort of scary because it seems as though I am missing a part of my identity. Teamwork is one of my stronger qualities, and right now, it doesn’t seem that way. I am going through a constant battle, that eventually I will overcome.
I identify strongly with your experience playing sports. I credit my work ethic and self-confidence in large part to playing sports as well. Playing a team sport as you would agree is very similar to creating a documentary as a team. No individual can succeed without the team. In my experiences on dozens of teams throughout my life I have seen my fare share of adversity. What I am learning more and more is that with the interaction of people disagreements and conflict are inevitable; what is most important is mutual respect for our teammates to communicate and hold ourselves accountable. I am so happy to see that you, Dt, and Lauren were able to overcome adversity and screen your final film. Congrats! I hope you took away some positives from this experience.