big baller

I'm really proud of myself this month. I went out of my comfort zone and did something that really, I've never done before. Never thought I could do.

I played basketball.

Rewind, Angela, age 14: Yes, I joined the young women at Church in the annual basketball tournament, but I was terrible. I was short. I didn't have any fun. I did it for the social atmosphere. I got to see my friends, and plus the young men were having a tournament at the same time so I got to see them, too *wink* By no means was I a basketball player.

Rewind, Angela, age 20: At BYU, my roommate slash dear friend slash favorite person Sarah was an excellent basketball player. I went to all of her intramural games, and what did I do? I kept the scorebooks. I marked off points and switched the jump ball sign and did whatever else the sidelined scorekeeper did. The two of us were also big fans of the BYU women's basketball team and went to almost all their games for four years. I've blogged about this before. Anyway, my point is, I was awfully good at cheering for other people playing basketball. I didn't dare do it myself.

So, why did I start playing basketball in January? Frankly, I was trying to fit in more exercise. I wanted to be more healthy. I aimed to work out every single day. I also kept track of my calories and food intake. I used this Web site that told me if I played a real basketball game for 90 minutes I would burn more than 900 calories. OK then, I'm sold. Maybe I'm terrible, but let's get out there and burn some calories.

And I had a blast.

Yes, I'm still short. But I'm kinda scrappy and stole the ball from people. I did manage to make a few baskets. I made a lot of new friends. We played Thursday nights and Saturday mornings, and basically whoever came, we made up teams and ran around for awhile. I was astonished actually at how much fun I had, sweating with new friends and just trying and feeling good about myself. Of course, HA!, my knees sort of took a beating and my right shooting arm would be sore after every game, but that's OK. A game every once in awhile is good for you, as long as you take it easy afterward :-)

The last game was last week; we had a big tournament over the course of a few weeks between four or five different stakes. The first game we lost miserably, ugh it was bad, so we went into the losers' bracket. We won one game by forfeit, then played that team that beat us miserably again. And this time the tables were turned! We creamed them! And I even got a basket. Some girls on our team are really good and get baskets every time, but me, I just get lucky every once in awhile. I came home that night on top of the world. (We lost our next game but it was still lots of fun. And lots of calories burned.)

The funny part about this is: I was a spectator for all those years. All those years I thought I wasn't good enough, I couldn't play, no one would want me on their team. But when I finally said, "to heck with it, I'm only here for the exercise," I had so much fun. I am really glad I wasn't a shrinking violet. I ran fast and clapped loud and made mistakes and had fun.

The moral of the story is: I'm not going to waste another minute of my life, no way. I can do what I want to do. I don't have to be on the sidelines, watching everyone else have fun. I hope I never forget this lesson.