Mizzou Rec Basketball Doesn't Mess Around

Since I was a little kid, basketball has always been my favorite sport. I just love the feeling of shutting someone down on defense. Or that feeling you get when the ball leaves your hand and you just know that it's going to be a perfect swish. 

So that was my first thought when I signed up for two separate rec leagues for this semester. You know, I'm gonna get my game back and ball it up and be like Mike.

LOL HAHA no.

This month my focus for my Happiness Project is to work out more, eat healthier, and drink water instead of all the soda and other sugary drinks that I love so much.

Obviously playing basketball is going to be an awesome idea for working out so I jumped at the opportunity to play with some friends from home and then on the Phi Lamb team as well.

I play on Sunday and Monday nights. And silly little me thought that it would just all come back to me. Here are the reasons my expectations were clearly not in line with reality.

FIRST. 

I forgot how clumsy I am. And how much I always fell in high school basketball. My knees look like someone took a baseball bat to them. The above picture of the great MJ is how I pictured myself looking. This is how I really look.

SECOND.

Holy guacamole I am out of shape. Like, really out of shape. In the words of my high school basketball coach, Coach Hann, running up and down the court I look like sap coming out of a tree on a cold winter day. And that's no lie. However, with each game it gets a little easier, just like I remembered. 

THIRD. 

I mentioned I'm clumsy, right? Well what about injury prone? Literally in my third game I pulled my hip flexor. And played the rest of the game. And then the game the next night with my other team. Let's just leave it with I hurt. And knowing me, that won't be the last time I get hurt in this league.

FOURTH.

I expected everyone to play physically. You know, how you're supposed to play basketball. And you'll never hear me complain about people going hard against me. But can we just say that in the co-ed division the guys treat you like you are a fellow man, not a woman. One of the first plays down the court I took a hard elbow to the gut. And then I avoided that guy the rest of the game. For obvious reasons.

Yeah yeah yeah....I'm complaining a lot. 

In reality I am having a blast. And I'm very happy that I am playing in both leagues because until I started up again I had forgotten how much I loved the sport. So as I am working out and getting in better shape I'm having a blast doing it. No matter how bad my shot is or how many rebounds I miss or how many times I pick up my dribble in the worst spot possible. The game makes me happy. So it fits right in with my Happiness Project.

I'll leave you with a little throwback of my favorite basketball picture. BALLIN.

Why procrastination is a good thing.

When I was in high school I was one of my grade's champions at staying on top of my homework/studying. My friends constantly made fun of me for picking school over whatever everybody else was doing that night. Well guess what college has done to that champion?

She gone.

That's right. Once upon a time I was a girl who got her work done a week ahead of time. However, I have fallen victim to the disease known as procrastination. 

But I'm not going to talk about how my mom lectures me on why I need to focus more on school, or how I want to pull all my hair out and how I yell at myself during the all-nighters I end up pulling to meet my deadlines.

I'm going to talk about how procrastinating in college has brought me more happiness than it has annoyance. And I'm going to talk about how I will never tell a college freshman to stay in and focus on school instead of going out and having fun. 

This is my Happiness Project, and happiness is the end goal. I can't tell you a time where I can honestly say, "man, Club Ellis was really hoppin tonight and I am SO HAPPY that I decided to not hang out with friends and read my textbooks and make flashcards". However, I can talk all day long about all of the fun times I have had in college all because I PROCRASTINATED. A perfect example is the past 6 days. 

Thursday night I made a list (because I make lists, it's what I do) of every single thing I needed to do for school. Holy smokes I had no business going on a road trip. But guess what I chose? Homework. LOL no. ROAD TRIP.

Our group (Alli, Emma, Me, Megan, Courtney) set off for DALLAS, TEXAS Friday afternoon because who doesn't love a quick road trip to the best state ever? And we had a blast. 

Even if we were screaming by the end of the trip because we needed out of the car. 

But we went to Billy Bob's in Fort Worth. And we danced. REAL dancing. Not that club dancing junk people call "dancing". Real dancing will always trump homework. Always.

While everybody was back home super cold and stuff we wore sundresses without a jacket. We win.

Then the next day I got to surprise my Texas family. The only person who knew I was coming was my Aunt Penny. I walked in with her in their house and pretended like it was nothing. My cousin Ivy freaked out and my Uncle Robert was pretty shocked. I also got to surprise my Uncle Garret which was even more awesome since I hadn't been able to see him for a few years. Family is everything to me so seeing them beats finishing homework any day of the week.

The next day we went and saw Emma's sister in her school play. They did Shrek the Musical. And it was fantastic. 

Driving home on Sunday was a disaster. Oklahoma had a huge snow storm that we got stuck in. We almost had to pull over and stay the night. We missed the Super Bowl. But that's okay because I didn't want to see Peyton get destroyed anyways. 

When we finally got home I procrastinated more because, well, I don't really have a reason.

Monday night Mizzou called school off for Tuesday because of the expected snow. So clearly I chose to hang out with my friends Monday night because it isn't every day you get a snow day in college.

Then Tuesday aka the best snow day ever. We went sledding, snow boarding, watched Frozen, and all sorts of shenanigans. My friends are the best. I was so much more happy doing fun things compared to taking advantage of the day off and doing homework. I made the right choice.

Side note - shout out to my Grandma Dorothy for getting me the best rain boots ever for Christmas. Pointed toe AND a heel. Everybody loved them. And they were super ideal for snow boarding. JK. Don't try that at home, kids. Those boots do not mix with a snow board.

Yesterday I watched Dexter and played flappy bird. All day. Not kidding. I only got out of bed for lunch and supper. Because why would I do any work on my second snow day? How often do you get two snow days in a row in college?

My Happiness Project is me focusing on doing more of what makes me happy. Yeah, at the end of the day I know I have to keep some priorities and I need to keep good grades. But I would rather hate myself for a few all-nighters in a row than look back in 20 years and regret not putting fun first during my 20s - the best years of my life. 

If you were curious, my homework list officially has two items checked off. And I read an entire book on the trip to Texas. Boom.