I'm highly involved in drama and music and often I don't have time for athletics, but this being grade 12 I wanted to get onto a school team finally (I had tried out in previous years, but hadn't made it). I was going to try Volleyball, Badminton and Baseball, but only expected to have a chance in Baseball, because I had done another year of Softball and had more consistent batting. Also, I wanted to walk to school every morning (it's not that far, it's just that I always have band so i'd have to wake up earlier then I already was) this year.
In the fall I tried out for the Volleyball team and made it onto the team. The team consisted of 12 guys (only like 15 tried out, and only like 10 or 11 went to most of the try-outs). A couple weeks in I realized I had accomplished my goal but didn't really feel like I had done anything to get there...
During my time on the team I often missed Jazz Band (Most of the practices were after school and Jazz was the only after-school band rehearsal at the time...) Also, I missed practice for the Fall Production, but I felt like this was okay because my part in the play was like three lines in one scene, maybe 5 minutes on stage, probably less... The play had rehearsals everyday, but the schedule got mixed up, so I never knew which day it was that I was supposed to be there for and ended up missing most of them, and the few I did go to usually weren't my scene...
Anyways, if you didn't go to the practices you wouldn't get to play much/at all during the games which were usually once a week, sometimes twice, and I was not on the starting line-up, so I had to go to practices and get better if I wanted to play in the games. Practices were always about two hours long. During that time we'd practice serving, split the team in half and play small matches, or other things, but if you missed a serve you'd have to do 10 push-ups or 20 sit-ups, if your team lost a point you'd have to run and touch the wall before the other side served the ball again, and if your side lost (the matches were usually up to 7 points) you'd have to clean the floor with the boards (wooden boards wrapped in towels) across the width of the gym depending on the difference in points (ie if it was 7-4 you'd clean the width of the gym with the boards 3 times.) I'd usually end up doing a lot of the punishment activities... i think. I was pretty bad at cleaning the floors with the boards at first... My knees were actually bleeding... Then the coach gave me knee pads and I eventually got better at it........ The point being that by the end of the season I almost had abs. xP ...
I actually missed the last play-off game because of the feeder school tour at school where the senior concert band goes to middle schools and plays a concert for them. Also, if they had won I would have had to choose between the play or going to OFSAA... they were both on the same group of days, but OFSAA was in Stratford, so I wouldn't have been able to do both... I don't know why, but I felt like the play was more important, even though I barely went to rehearsals.... I kinda felt guilty about that...
This was one of those events that made me realize that being in Music, Athletics and Drama is nearly impossible...
When I got my mid-term report card it showed that I had been absent to Jazz Band a number of times. I thought that if I went to band then told my director that I was going to practice I wouldn't be marked absent because I did show up, but apparently not... After that I didn't care about attendence, becasue there was no way I was fighting with my director about that and with more then like 1.5 absences you can't even get one of the "Good" Attendence awards... Before this report card I would always rush to class to avoid being late, but I just didn't care anymore (although I actually still havn't gone to the office for a late slip in a really long time... I actually don't remember when the last one was....)
In the end:
- Volleyball was a lot of fun. You feel really good after a practice. Although I didn't really accomplish much (I did get to play some of the time and that time was really awesome, except for that one time the ball smashed into my face and messed up my glasses... lol) my time playing with the team was pretty awesome. (The company that made our shirts messed up my name though. My last name is kinda long, so I thought I would put my first name then my last initials "D F-A" my shirt said "D-Fa"...) ... I kinda don't talk to my teammates anymore because I never see them... kinda sad...
- I stopped missing Band and realized it was more fun then I thought it was. Dixie ended up being reformed and I joined Vocal Jazz.
- The play went pretty well... xP I messed up my lines one day and the audiences were kinda small, but it was fun. I feel like I didn't spend as much time with the cast as I should have... except for that one day when we had an in-character game of freeze to develop our characters and I ended up being a murderous nurse..? Lol. VB (This is how I will be censoring the names of people I know) actually screamed. That day was pretty great. I still see most of the cast because of the musical, so everything is okay. Cast notes were kinda sketchy and last minute...
Wow this is longer then I expected it to be... I haven't even gotten to the point I wanted to make...
After Volleyball, my next goal was badminton. I kinda missed it... Badminton is a Winter sport and I never really heard the announcements and all the practices were in the mornings (I have band every morning....) So... ya. I never tried out and would have had to miss band a lot...... (All of the morning rehearsals are for credit bands, so missing them would lower my average and band really raises my average. xP) Also, by here I was missing so much sleep that I could not wake up that early every morning and so I ended up getting driven almost all the time until it snowed then it was all the time...
During that time I kinda didn't do much / any athletics because I don't like skating (13 sprained wrists. Don't ask.) so winter sports are kind of a no go... At New Years I thought I would start excersising, like push-ups and sit-ups everyday increasing number everyday until the end of the month then about half as much then increase twice as much, for the whole year. XP .... I made it until like late January when I would start missing a day or two, but catch up. By mid-February, I was missing 2-3 days at a time, until it just stopped....
So. A couple weeks ago I hear on the announcements that Baseball tryouts are starting in a week and that there's a meeting at lunch somewhere. When I heard this I was like "Oh no... I'm not ready." and like I started planning to run in the mornings before breakfast or something. I began walking to school again since the snow was all gone (let's see how long this lasts. xP).
So last week I went for a run one night. I ran to Fisher and around and back. My legs hurt.... and this was only like a couple days before the first try-out... not a great idea.. xP
The try-out went okay. Rehearsal was almost cancelled (Jewish Holiday), so I didn't miss anything. Only like 14 guys were there. Not many outstanding players, maybe six or seven. The coach told me how to swing and it worked, so this should be good. It shows that I'm coachable and can improve. There was no running.. xP kinda ironic.
So ya. I've run twice(?) more since then. Once just around the track at my old middle school for a while at night and this morning at 6:30. I ran past school and the park in light rain. When I returned home I google mapped it to see how far I had ran. It was Four kilometers. I was kinda really happy about it. It was probably the furthest and longest I have run continually since Gym class last year*****. Also, my legs don't hurt. xP And I actually ran it non-stop while listening to my ipod blast my new music* **. (I need new ear buds... ones that stay in while I run...) Maybe running in the morning is better... that's what I had heard. I don't remember why though...
I have also played tennis with my brother at the park a few times this weekend. Only one net was up, but no one else was there, or at least no one else that could open the lock. xP ... We were walking to the park, no one on the courts.. We are like 50 meters away and a car drives up to the courts and a couple guys get out.. My brother is being pessimistic.. We get closer and they say that it's locked.. Immediatly my brother is much happier.. The day before we didn't lock it and I hadn't noticed a lock, so I thought it was a new lock for the year.. It was the old lock and just as they drive away we open it. xP
We only had three tennis balls*** and my racket is kinda falling apart... It's been falling apart for a while. I taped it up using a lot of electrical tape, but I will need a new racket before I start my summer job ****. It was fun. Normally my brother blows up with rage if we are playing for real, so I don't mind only rallying sometimes.
Anyway, the next baseball try-out is this Friday. Let's hope it goes a better then the last one, but whatever ends up happening is for the best... I mean the play is at the end of the month and I will probably not get to miss many rehearsals....
I hope my posts get shorter, because this took a long time to write.... and read probably... >.> And,I kinda have homework to do... xP
D.Fa
*fine I will use foot notes...
** I recently bought three CDs. This will most likely be in another post soon.
*** two of which are practice balls that only bounce about half as high as they should and so they are kinda annoying, but for the first day of tennis in about 7 months its probably better that way... xP
**** I will probably complain about / talk about my jobs in another post.
***** Last year I ran for half an hour non-stop on a treadmill at the Y the day before the beep test... Not smart. I only got like a 7.8 so I took it again on the make-up day and got like 8.5. I learned you should not run a marathon the day before a race, or something like that. But I have not put that into practice so far... probably procrastination.... xP especially if you relate it to doing projects the day before they are due...
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