Love ya, miss ya.

I miss sports. OK I miss varsity/organized sports.

I miss the competition, the willingness to work hard as a team for a common goal (except for those deviants who don't have the team's best interest at heart ie. Marcus, Kirsten).
I miss the thrill and the rush of adrenaline when it's time to perform.
I miss trying extra hard because you know you have to impress someone.
I miss drills and sweating your ass off.
I miss warm-ups and preparations for a game.
I miss the feeling as if your legs are going to fall off.
I miss wall-sits.
I miss try-outs (can never do more push-ups than at try-outs), fitness testing and skill testing.
I miss sore muscles.
I miss looking forward to practice after school.
I miss missing class for tournaments.
I miss reading about your team in media coverage.
I miss uniforms.
I miss doing stupid things at practice when you should be practicing.
I miss hanging out at the gym.
I miss buying sports equipment.
I miss getting access to a gym.
I miss making fun of the frat basketball teams.
I miss wearing my winter jacket to play a ball game.
I miss road trips (the ones where I'm not driving..tendency to get speeding tickets).
I miss the nervous feeling in my stomach.
I miss the cheering.
I miss giving the other team the evil eye.
I miss joking about people on the other team.
I miss the reactions of people who underestimate me.
I miss Coach Pete's endless enthusiasm.
I miss stats.
I miss contraversy.
I miss seeing the progress over time.
I miss feeling fit.
I miss drunken team parties.
I miss sleepless night-befores.
I miss being so busy that I can't remember what sport I should be playing.
I miss that old me.
I miss much much more.

The reality is that I am too old for it. My priorities have changed. I can't afford the physical time, nor the emotional or mental time in playing varsity. I love to play, but I think that era of my life has come to an end, for which I mourn, but can accept. I contemplated playing for about 10 minutes. It was exactly like the moment I had 2 years ago when at Western. I weighed the pros and the cons, my desire to play, and how I would handle the time commitment. The desire to play is still there, but the wilingness to commit has cooled. How different my decision is now compared to then. I never regretted playing, even when I couldn't keep track of the days.

For now, I'll do the best I can to stay in touch.