I was recently telling someone about my life at college. They were asking about classes, my job, how I balanced having a social life, and basketball. Towards the end of the conversation, they asked me, "Has it ever felt like too much? Have you ever thought of quitting basketball?"
I would like to say I answered with something along the lines of, "No way, it's always been a dream ride ..." and yada yada yada ... but that's not the truth.
The truth is that basketball has been hard. Nothing worth doing is ever easy. It's never been easy to give up my weekends with friends to go to a tournament. It's never been easy to get up at 6 am to go lifting. It's never been easy to deal with injuries, go through physical therapy, and try and come back into your season as soon as possible. It's never been easy to go after goals, win games, and/or make it to playoffs, the state tournament, or national tournament. It's not easy now to tell my siblings that I won't be able to watch their state cross country meet because I have practice. It's not easy to remind my family that I will only have a week of Christmas break. It's never been easy. It won't ever be easy.
But I'm not going to quit.
This question actually gave me a lot of good reason to reflect on why I play basketball. I thought about my time as a youth when I started playing on a traveling team in 5th grade; how those girls were teammates who I played with for the next eight years until we were seniors in high school. I thought about how I knew exactly what their strengths were, I knew the move they would make on the basketball court before they would even make it, and how I knew more about them than just their plays on the court. I knew their families - parents, siblings, and grandparents. I knew where each of them lived and could drive to their houses in my sleep.
I thought about my time playing on an AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) team; how almost every year it was a completely new team. I thought about the first time I ever played against a girl over 6 feet tall when I was in 8th grade and how that was slightly intimidating. I thought about all of the overnight weekend trips I took with my family and how incredibly bonding that was for the six of us. I thought about the teammates who I am still in contact with and how I still play against many of them at the college level.
I thought about my time now as a college basketball player; how I never even heard of many of my teammates and now consider them some of my closest friends. I thought back to my freshman year of college and how I had coaches that reached out to me and several upperclassmen who went out of their way to make sure that I was surviving life as a college student-athlete. I thought about my second season as a sophomore and how more than anything, I wanted my teammates to know they were incredibly loved by me and their Savior.
Which brought me to my conclusion of why I play basketball. Basketball isn't always about playing basketball anymore.
It's a great game - don't get me wrong. For anyone who is interested in Strength's Finder, you should know that my number one strength is Competition. I think my strength as a competitor far outweighs my other strengths.
Example A: I hate losing; to the point where I don't even have to watch game film because I know exactly which play is going to happen and I can replay the entire game in my mind; to the point where sometimes I lose sleep over it; to the point where this is probably making me sound insane.
But basketball isn't always about playing basketball. For me, basketball is about a form of worship - that in everything I do, on and off the court, I am representing Jesus Christ. That's not easy either. It's not easy when the other team says something really offense to your teammates or when the ref makes a bad call, because lets be honest, it happens at least once a game! (Being even more real, I know that I am going to screw it up sometimes) However, every time I step on that court and remind myself that I am playing for a greater purpose then just the game of basketball, my perspective and my purpose changes.
It's kind of like that quote by C.S. Lewis (and by the way, if he was still alive, he would be my friend crush!).
I play basketball with a different perspective not because it changes our win-loss record or what the refs think about the call they just made, but because it changes how I play because of the need I feel to honor Christ, not out of obligation but because I love him as well. And in the end, that is why I play basketball.
I would like to say I answered with something along the lines of, "No way, it's always been a dream ride ..." and yada yada yada ... but that's not the truth.The truth is that basketball has been hard. Nothing worth doing is ever easy. It's never been easy to give up my weekends with friends to go to a tournament. It's never been easy to get up at 6 am to go lifting. It's never been easy to deal with injuries, go through physical therapy, and try and come back into your season as soon as possible. It's never been easy to go after goals, win games, and/or make it to playoffs, the state tournament, or national tournament. It's not easy now to tell my siblings that I won't be able to watch their state cross country meet because I have practice. It's not easy to remind my family that I will only have a week of Christmas break. It's never been easy. It won't ever be easy.
But I'm not going to quit.
This question actually gave me a lot of good reason to reflect on why I play basketball. I thought about my time as a youth when I started playing on a traveling team in 5th grade; how those girls were teammates who I played with for the next eight years until we were seniors in high school. I thought about how I knew exactly what their strengths were, I knew the move they would make on the basketball court before they would even make it, and how I knew more about them than just their plays on the court. I knew their families - parents, siblings, and grandparents. I knew where each of them lived and could drive to their houses in my sleep.
I thought about my time now as a college basketball player; how I never even heard of many of my teammates and now consider them some of my closest friends. I thought back to my freshman year of college and how I had coaches that reached out to me and several upperclassmen who went out of their way to make sure that I was surviving life as a college student-athlete. I thought about my second season as a sophomore and how more than anything, I wanted my teammates to know they were incredibly loved by me and their Savior.
Which brought me to my conclusion of why I play basketball. Basketball isn't always about playing basketball anymore. It's a great game - don't get me wrong. For anyone who is interested in Strength's Finder, you should know that my number one strength is Competition. I think my strength as a competitor far outweighs my other strengths.
Example A: I hate losing; to the point where I don't even have to watch game film because I know exactly which play is going to happen and I can replay the entire game in my mind; to the point where sometimes I lose sleep over it; to the point where this is probably making me sound insane.
But basketball isn't always about playing basketball. For me, basketball is about a form of worship - that in everything I do, on and off the court, I am representing Jesus Christ. That's not easy either. It's not easy when the other team says something really offense to your teammates or when the ref makes a bad call, because lets be honest, it happens at least once a game! (Being even more real, I know that I am going to screw it up sometimes) However, every time I step on that court and remind myself that I am playing for a greater purpose then just the game of basketball, my perspective and my purpose changes.
It's kind of like that quote by C.S. Lewis (and by the way, if he was still alive, he would be my friend crush!).
"I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me." -CS Lewis
I play basketball with a different perspective not because it changes our win-loss record or what the refs think about the call they just made, but because it changes how I play because of the need I feel to honor Christ, not out of obligation but because I love him as well. And in the end, that is why I play basketball.
-Courage, dear heart. C.S. Lewis
Lexi
