Centralians Don't Play Soccer

Someday you may get the notion that since you are generally pretty athletic that you can surely play a sport that only requires you to run and kick a ball. And maybe you're right. 

Unless you're from Centralia. 

Take my word for it. No matter how athletic you think you are, if you are from Centralia, DON'T PLAY SOCCER.

Seriously. Not kidding. Take Coach Bennett's and the rest of the coaches advice and do yourself a favor and leave this sport to the kids who were actually allowed to play while growing up. 

If I had to blame anybody, it would have to be my friends Emma and Courtney since they are Phi Lamb's rec chairs and they make the teams. And since all my friends were playing, I decided to join too. Kidding about blaming them. But they are the reason I decided to play, sooo....

The first game was absolutely ridiculous. The only thing I had going for me was my ability to run thanks to cross country and track. However, being able to run only goes so far when you have no idea where you're actually supposed to be running too. So I just chased after the ball. The highlight of my game was stealing the ball from some other girl. We won't talk about how I made it a whopping five feet before getting it stolen right back. Whatever.

Side-note: I will never understand a sport where when a ball is flying at your head you aren't allowed to catch it. You're actually supposed to hit it with your head. From now on I will be sticking to the sports that I know and love that involve catching a ball.

Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed that first game to an extent. I really love to run and I got a lot of running in. So that was fun. Also playing with my friends was a perk. I can't say the sport was super exciting to me, but props to those people out there who play and are good/love it. This world would be quite dull if we all loved and appreciated the same things.

Then the second game rolls around. I made it a whole three minutes before hurting myself. They thought I tore my ACL but thank the good Lord that I didn't. Talk about a buzz kill. I just really bruised the bones pretty bad and have had to use crutches for the past two weeks. It's been super.....awful. If I'm not super toned by the time I get off of these I will be more than disappointed. 

But this is my Happiness Project. Why did playing a foreign sport and hurting myself make me happy you ask?

Well......trying something new. The whole point of this project is to step out of my comfort zone and experience new things. Try the unexpected. And coming from Centralia, soccer is definitely unexpected. 

When I went home last weekend every single person who saw me on crutches said in some way, "Don't you know where you are from? People from Centralia don't play soccer."

I can't really say that getting hurt helped my happiness project any. I guess in a way it made me appreciate my home town. I always thought it was crazy that nobody played or liked soccer back home. However, this must have just been God's way of telling me to leave this sport to the people who understand it. 

As for me, I'll stick with football. You just can't beat those Friday Night Lights.