Me and Basketball

I was six and my brother was eight when we were first taught by our visiting older cousin on how to play basketball. Our mentor tied up the basket ring which is about a size of an adult head with our shoe laces and just low enough for us to reach it. Our ball was a rubber ball, slightly bigger than a tennis ball; a birthday present from my dad to my two year old sister. Then we were taught our first basketball lesson, and that is how to dribble the ball. We were taught on how to use only one hand when dribbling the ball because using both hands would call for double dribble---our first rule lesson in this game. He also taught us how to play defense, and that we should avoid making foul when defending and lastly how to score a point. After making several attempts to make a shot which our mentor failed to do so, he just then grabbed the ball and made a dunk--- “And that’s what you call slam dunk”!!! I can still remember the tone of his words when saying that up until now. My brother was stout and of course much taller and stronger than I am. He beats me in everything, and he was a bully. And at that moment, I was thinking of a way to stop such tyranny and that is to beat him in this game of basketball. With a score of five to zero, our mentor stopped the game for I was crying and complaining of my brother’s elbow blows. That was my first basketball game loss.

Soon after that day, I start practicing and perfecting my moves in playing the game and I was fortunate to do good in this sport game; achieving awards and championship trophies, those were my glorious moments in life. And in all the basketball games that I played, there are two lessons I learned for myself and these were; believe in myself and love of the game.

~Believe~

In every sport game that is played by a team, it is vital that it should be played with teamwork. We should know our teammate’s potential, weakness, their limit and when to bring the best out of them. However, we must believe in ourselves first before we rely on others. Time will come when others are not able to help you that we have to rely in our own abilities to win the game. Hence, it is important  to believe in yourself and in your capability to perform to the best of your ability. If we don’t have faith in us, no one else will until we do first.

However, faith alone is not enough; we have to work hard to bring the best out of us. We may face endless challenges in our lives but in those times where we struggle, we will find our stronger sense of who we are. We have to carry ourselves up no matter how many times we fall for no one else will. We should believe that everything is possible if we have faith in ourselves.

~Love~

Love is a powerful tool to keep us going. There are no definite words to describe the feeling of the love, but one thing we are certain of and that is the opposite of “hate”. How can we keep on doing things we hate? Definitely, we cannot stick for long in a thing that we don’t even like at first. Although “love” can be learned, but it can never be in comparison to the “love” that we wanted most. To love things that we do, it gives us endless motivation and inspiration. It gives us a different view in facing trials in life that it makes us love the challenges that we encounter in our lives. Through this, just like stated earlier, it simply keeps us going.

I ended up graduating in a medical field rather than being a professional basketball player but one thing I know of and don’t regret is “I love what I do” .In this game of basketball the sport I love most, I am very thankful to the experiences that help me learn my principles in life, which are “to believe in myself and to love what I do”.

Our lives are similar to a basketball game, it has a time frame to end the ball game, just as we have our time limit in our lives. It has to be played with five players working and supporting each other, just like our family and friends around us, and the challenges and trials in our lives are just like the rival team we face in the game. Lastly, the ball which represents us and the basket ring which represents our dreams. And just like the game, we have to use all of what we have to score just like doing everything we have to achieve our goal in life.