Monday 20 September 2010

White girls can jump

they just can't shoot apparently.  But as I ran my punishment suicide for not winning 21s I realised that it has been 10 years since I last played basketball.  10 years.  That is a shockingly long time to have not done something you love as well as something you used to be pretty good at.

Back when I was a wee small thing, I badgered my mum into having a basketball net put up in the back garden.  I would race home from school and play for at least an hour, shooting, dribbling, lay ups and all the time imaging the bright lights of a real basketball court.  I played with the boys at school, we didn't have a girls basketball team - we were meant to do netball. Booooooooooooooooring!  And eventually I found a local-ish girls team to play in, there weren't many of us but we all loved that game.  I used to record the late night basketball games from America on channel 4 on a Saturday evening/Sunday morning and watch them with avid attention.  I knew who was winning the league, who played for what team and who the up and comers were.  This was back in the day (lol) when Michael Jordon still played for Chicago Bulls and Kobe Bryant was a wee slip of a lad. Times change - I couldn't tell you who plays for who now.

Why did I let go of something that I loved sooooooooo much?  Life steps in and changes you, it grinds past and sweeps you up in its wheels not giving you time to breathe or say hang on a minute - this isn't me!!  I've putting a spoke in that wheel.  I'm saying hey - hold on a minute - this is my life and I'm going to do the things I love thank you very much.  I'm going to start playing basketball again and start running the plays because this is a big part of me that has been buried and pushed down.  They always say you can't keep a good thing down and even though I feel like a newbie back on the court - it won't be long before I'm shooting nothing but net.

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