Mickey Watson
Community
Service at POLY
On Sunday, September 18 a few guys
from the soccer team and I took a trip to POLY middle school to do some
community service work. For an hour we were giving the opportunity to work with
kids that had disability problems. When I first arrived at the site, I stupidly
felt out of place. This feeling went away when I introduced myself to the lady
that was running the program. While conversing with her, she said, “you are
going to be working with maybe one or two athletes.” I assumed that she was
referring to the disable kids when she said, “athletes.” I couldn’t comprehend
why she was calling them that; however, after working with them for an hour, I
realized that they were more than athletes.
As I was walking around observing
the kids, Ann, the program director approached me and said, “We need someone to
help out with Nate today. He’s usually happy and just wants to kick the ball as
far as possible, but he’s not cooperating today.” I excitedly said, “Yes!”
At first, it was hard to get his
attention. He was even crying at one point because I wouldn’t let him past the
safety boundaries. I took the soccer ball and started juggling it. Right then
and there the kid changed my whole weekend: he began laughing historically.
After that, I started to play keep away from him: he found so much joy in every
and anything I did with the ball.
After it was all over, I got back
in my care and started to think about the time I just had. Soccer has not been
going well for me ever since I came to college. It has become a job that I
hate. But when Nate started laughing and enjoying me playing with the ball,
that moment helped me realized why I fell in love with the game. I saw a lot of
myself in Nate: a young 12-year-old boy just enjoying having a ball at his
feet. For that hour I was able to forget about the competing, injuries, and
everything that comes with college soccer. It was just me and Nate: the boy who
showed me that being an athlete is about having fun and loving what you
do.
No comments:
Post a Comment