Tommorow morning I will be heading off to Nova scotia for my last cross country race. Excuse me, if I seem to be talking about the sport too much but it has suprised me on so may levels. When I joined the team I had already made up assumptions on how it was going to turn out. I played many sports in high school and middle school, it was never pleasant. It was hard work, overly competitive people, barely no support system between teammates. To begin with, I must confess that the sports gene in my family was definitely not given to me.
My older brother can learn any sport and become fairly good if not perfect. Myself on the other side, I practice, practice and practice to only end up on the bench hahaha. Cross country was another completely different story. As usually I joined with a very limited experience and out of shape ( physically and mentally). I had no idea what I was getting myself into, all I knew and believe was the former experiences in other sports. With that said, I went in with a very negative felling about the sport and the all the teammates in general. This is a belief that i held even before I decided to join the team. My first practice was horrible, I remenber saying to myself the first two weeks " Okay this is the last time I am going to practice, i have to tell Scoot, I AM DONE!". Something that I dont know kept pushing me to suprise myself, to challenge myself and to prove my body that I can do my best. My teammates were the complete opposite of what I had in mind. Everybody was very welcoming(despite me not being in good shape) and very patient ( especially the coach). I never thought in my life that i could actually say that i like my coach and that i like a competitive sport. Now the season is almost over and i have improved beyond my imagination. I still frown at the hills during practices and the saturdays long "hilly" workouts. I can honestly say that this team is simply amazing. Everyone in them. :D
I believe my experience can be related to what we been doing in class so far. We have been reading all kind of stuff (especially "Doubt") and finding what influenced us to come to a certain conclusion. This is what happened to me, going to a sport with an already made up mind. The lesson that I came out with is to never judge anything or anybody from previous experiences. This is ofcourse hard and it's not easy to ingore something when you "think" you know the outcome. I am going to make sure this is my goal, to stop judging anybody or anything from my past experiences. I wont let my past good or bad stop me from enjoying life. I now made friendships that could last forever. This was not a season thing, these are my friends now.
Emmanuel Rutayisire
Sorry for any wrong spelling. :D
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