Old Post #6-Soccer's Like Life!

I used to hate soccer. I really did. Europe is right to call it football because that's all you can use, plus your noggin, which hurts like heck unless you hit it at just the right angle with your forehead.I was on a couple teams, and man, was I bored. There are like 11 players on either side. No one really knows strategy when they're 11. I mean, I was just starting to learn how to get out of doing my homework, but that's an unrelated matter.So one year my team was green, a good start because that's my favorite color. I don't remember the team name, maybe a car dealership or a pizza place. Anyway, the coach's son played. Kevin. What a brat! Total ball hog too. And Kevin had the most annoying haircut, not just a moptop-he looked like Nicholas Bradford from 'Eight is Enough' on tv, and given the age difference between Nicholas and his next older sibling, you just knew Nicholas was an accident, but that's not something they could say to his face-it just wasn't that kind of show.Well, Kevin never shut up. Or passed. And you couldn't complain because you'd get benched. His dad, Mr.Kelsey, thought Kevin's poop smelled like roses. Also, Mr.Kelsey combed his thinning hair over his baldspot and yelled a lot. He didn't exactly inspire a lot of respect and confidence in his players. Consequently, our team stunk. Plus we had 2 brand new Polish immigrants, Voytech and Chi-chi, who wore really short shorts and always were blabbing that the Americans, the rest of the team, would never truly understand the meaning of the game. At least they never passed it to Kevin and vice versa. So it was kinda funny to watch all 3 of them screaming at each other. From the bench. I was skinny and small and according to Mr. Kelsey didn't have the 'eye of the tiger'. ( I found out a year later that I was actually terribly near-sighted and got the Coke bottle eyeglasses that I require to this day. I found out 2 years later from my cousin Dan that the 'eye of the tiger' reference was from Rocky 3. )So soccer to me seemed for years to be a waste of time. A lot of running around and low scoring-2-1, 1-0. Whoopee!But then looking at my friend's baby boy's picture on Facebook recently, I saw the glow in Connor's eyes, and it suddenly dawned on me. Soccer's like life! 'It's the journey, not the destination.' In life, you run around like crazy all day. You don't score anywhere near enough-ace that test, finish that presentation just how you want it for tomorow's meeting, save up enough money to buy that birthday gift you know the Mrs. would love-but that's not the point! You have to laugh along the way, learn from mistakes and rest assurred every night when you turn in that, despite any frustrations, it's 'better to have loved ( or played soccer ) than never to have loved at all ( or played soccer )'.So here's a question I put to all the little athletes, band members and scouts out there-benchwarmers, superstars and every tyke in between -What's the most important thing in any endeavor in life?-1) Being a good sport.2) Having fun.3) Winning.Right, #3-winning. No just kidding! It's a tie between #1 and #2. And I already talked about trying hard, which I guess would be #4. So rock on!( PS-Hey, Christine-little Connor looks just like you, except for his big nose, but he'll grow into that. Don't you worry! )