I did not only love Track and Field back in my high school days but enjoyed playing netball and watching football games as well. As a matter of fact, I was a member of the netball team but we didn’t do as well as anticipated. Those girls from Vere Technical and Clarendon College just knew how to defeat us; they didn’t skin teeth with us. As for football, I used to enjoy watching the game but I didn’t have a choice. I lived on campus and the school was surrounded by mostly bushes and sugar cane. I then had to make myself comfortable by watching the games that were being played on the school’s ground or, by going on hiking in the cane field.
On weekends I would go to the cane field and help myself with sugar cane,
So apart from my dorm mothers, I wasn’t threatened by the sunshine nor the rain,
Not even that time of the month when I would be feeling bouts of pain.
To the way I loved sugar cane, if it were to make people mad I would have been the first to go insane.
It’s a pleasure to reminisce about days in that institution that is still surrounded by some bush;
The good old days when I didn’t even know what it was like to be stuck-up or stoosh.
I’m not complaining about my high school surroundings because I grew up in a district that had hills, valleys, and bushes, a district where I used to see many fireflies or peenie-wallies. They were like a source of light when we had dark nights. Anyway, we had a few street lights that I thought weren’t enough, so I would look forward to seeing the new moon and full moon,
Sometimes the nights were so dark that I would act like a buffoon,
By looking up to the sky and asked, “Moon, how soon?”.
After leaving high school, I still watched football games but only on the TV; every Sunday afternoon I used to watch the English Premier League. After watching many of those games, I became aware of many things, including when a player is deserving of a red or yellow card. My eyes were always ‘glued’ to the TV so I wouldn’t miss a second of the game. During the games, I made several observations but there was one that was most outstanding. I noticed that those who made more attempts at the goals would score and sometimes even won the competition. I may not have watched other games like how I watched football but I would want to think that the same can be said about them and more so, things that I would want to acquire in life. That is, the more I aim at doing some things in life, the greater my chances of succeeding.
If we are like footballers who are desirous of scoring or achieving in life, then we have to keep shooting at our goals. There are times when life’s challenges may attack us on the way but nonetheless, we should never give up. We should always focus on acquiring our desires.
Darren Donnelly says, “When you’re not afraid to fail, your chances of succeeding improve”.
It’s better to lose while trying with all our might,
than to lose without even putting up a ‘fight’.
