PlayBeautiful

The Beautiful Game: My Story (Part 1) | Written By Laxmi

How I got into football is pretty unconventional. I didn't grow up with the sport like the most of you. No one in my family supported any clubs or teams. Also, I was never a part of any football team. Even when I think about how I fell in love with this sport, I find it incredibly weird. Never in my life would I have ever thought I would love something as much as football. Four years ago is when I discovered this amazing sport. These four years have been the best because I've learned so much. Along the way, I have even met some incredible people. Believe it or not, football has taught me a lot.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was what sucked me in. Now when most people talk about how they first fell in love with football, they tend to say it was love at first sight. That wasn’t me at all. It was actually the opposite. At first, I had the "typical American mindset" towards the sport. I wasn't being ignorant, I just didn't have much of an interest in sports. I had the notion that football, along with many other sports, was boring and it was a guy's sport.

My journey started back in 2010. It was my junior year in high school and I was ecstatic that summer was right around the corner. One morning I was walking to my locker and I overheard a couple of students talking about something called "The World Cup". Unfortunately, I didn't understand what they were talking about so I didn't pay much attention to them. By the time lunchtime came around, my friends and I saw a large crowd of students swarming the TV screens set up in my cafeteria. Usually the news would be playing, but that day something else was. I remember looking at one of my best friends and wondering why everyone was crowded around those TVs. After looking up, I realized it had to do with football. During the entire week, students were glued to those old TVs. At first, I really didn't understand what all the hype was about. I just thought people were watching it as a fad. I now realize that I was being ignorant because I automatically wrote off this sport without even giving it a chance.

A very distinct memory that I will never forget was in my Spanish class. My classmates were constantly pestering my Spanish teacher to put on a World Cup game. Since my class rarely behaved, she said we could watch the game only on one condition: if we behaved and finished all of our work. That day everyone was on their best behavior and she let us watch it. This was the first match I have ever watched. I looked up at the screen and saw men with yellow jerseys on one side and red jerseys on the other. After giving it a chance, I didn't think it was that bad. I wasn't in love with it yet, however, it wasn't what I expected. There was a lot of excitement in the classroom. So many people were screaming and talking about certain individual players. The only thing that I knew was that the opposing team had to get the ball into the other team's net. I had no knowledge about any of the teams or the rules. Although the players in red were up one goal, I was cheering for the guys in yellow. Something about them made me admire them. To this day, I still don't know what it was but I'm glad I watched that game. Class ended and the score read "Brazil 2 - 1 North Korea".

The day of Goral's prom was another distinct memory of mine. While I helped Goral get ready, my older sister and her friend, Keisha, sat in my living room watching a World Cup game. After Goral left, I decided to join them. I remember sitting there and Keisha telling me how some guy named Ronaldo was hot. She went on and on about his abs and how every girl in school loved him. I looked at the screen and laughed. Because of her 'bandwagoner attitude', I was not invested in the game. I automatically left the room because I did not want to be associated with someone who watched the World Cup for all the wrong reasons.

To be honest, what really got me into the World Cup was the United States Men's National Team. I was curious to know how the US was doing in this competition. After watching a couple of their games, I was hooked. That summer, I watched so many matches with my family. My sisters and I woke up early every morning just so we weren't able to miss any of the World Cup fixtures. In the afternoons, my grandparents would join us to watch it too. What I loved so much about the World Cup was that it evoked so many different emotions. Some days we were happy, other days we were sad. This competition was far greater than some reality TV show or scripted sitcom. The World Cup was real. No scripts, just raw emotions, passions, and desires.