If I have to stand up to give out testimony about miracle, this is what I want to talk about, small miracle in my simple life. Things that will bring out a smile and lovely memories that I will remember for years to come. Small as they are, miracle is still a miracle and I am glad to be able to recount this story.
Long long time ago...
I was born to be a motoric moron. I had no talent whatsoever in sports and exercise. And this defect of mine has scarred me for life, as I became the object of bullying by my Physical Education teacher in my school days.
You name every kind of sports that exist, and I sure could not do it. Basketball, volleyball, kasti, even 'bola bekel' just to name a few. In my junior high school, I was made to do the (basketball) lay-up shot many times, I just could not do it right. The memory still lingers until now, it's left (foot), right, left while shooting. But, I just could not do control my feet when I was running. Come on, you were running and you had to remember which one was your left foot and which one was your right foot, and control it just to shoot a ball? How stupid was that? And the stupid PE Teacher (sorry, but really, no appreciation for this kind of brainless teacher), made me and some other moronic girls do it over and over again, as if our life would depend on our ability to do lay-up shot.
I mean, sports and exercise, are done to make a person happier and healthier, right? It is supposed to create the sportsman out of a person, so that a person can learn to lose graciously. But what if that person just loses every time? Every single time? I mean, out of 10 lay up shot that I did was deemed wrong, even though the balls went straight to the basket. Wasn't that the point, to score the point by shooting the balls to the basket? I don't think the TV viewers will bother whether those NBA players moved their feet correctly while shooting the balls? But, no, my brainless teacher still gave me 0/10, because I did not do my left, right, left foot correctly!
And it happened over and over again, in every PE lesson. I was made such a total loser! And I just hated that feeling. So, I grew up hating every kind of exercise and every kind of sports. (Yes, I am also lazy, but that is beside the point). I hate every sports on TV (sports are to be done, not watched), I never supports anyone to become athlete (athletes have no brain, no brain). I dared not join any basketball games, or volleyball games, as I refused to be the person who brought out the downfall of the team. I hate the feeling of being the loser.
And life passed on....
I got a job, I got married, I had my children, life has been good to me.
But, something happened. The department that I was in, decided to do bowling for the team building activity. And, by now, you should understand, with my predicament with all the things motoric, I was not particularly excited about the bowling thing.
With the ratio of 1:6 for woman: man in my company, all the ladies were tasked to form a team and find their own teammates. I went around my department, recruiting the guys! The conversation would be something like this:
Me: Hi, do you want to join my team? But I have to tell you, I am a very bad bowler, really really bad!
Guy 1: Oh, that's all right, I am also not a good bowler. We will do all right (he's in)
or
Guy 2: Well, I did bowling like more than 10 years ago, if you want to accept an old man who has not bowled for the last 10 years, I'll join your team (he's in)
or
Guy 3: Yes..I do play, but not too well I should say (he's in).
So, with a team of not so good players with different nationalities (two Australians, one Korean and one Chinese Canadian, and a lovely Indonesian lady as a team leader), I thought I would do all right. We would have fun losing out the game together! Never would I thought that these guys were bunch of liars. And these guys would never thought that I was being honest to them when I told them that I was such a bad bowler.
The guys that I recruited turned out to be such excellent bowlers. The old man who did not bowled for the last 10 years, was the bowling champion 10 years ago. The others were good bowlers too. My other members were not too pleased with my performance. But they could not voice it out in the name of team-work. Whenever I bowled, the ball would either go to the gutter or if it did not, then it will be moving very very slow, just like the slow motion that you see in drama, and would hit at most 2 pins. Most of the time, though, it would just go to the gutter.
The result of this game was as expected. We did not win the game, but the old man got the highest score for individual. In fact, our team still managed to get the second or third highest score and would do better if not for the low score contributed by me.
As for me, I resigned to the fact that I got "the bowler of the year" award. No guessing on what the award meant. My team members should be happy because 2 of its team members won a prize.
However, things were not that bad for me, as the award came with a prize: $50 shopping voucher. That was not quite good, considering the winner got $100 voucher. At least I beat those that are average, and my tight competitor (second lowest scorer) looked at me, green with envy!
Morale of the story:
Either you are the first or you are the last, but never ever be an average, because mediocrity is not rewarded
(to be continued)
Picture can be found in google, and is not used for any financial gain whatsoever.
No comments:
Post a Comment