Passion

I've been playing basketball since I was in the 7th grade. It's been nearly a decade since I was first introduced to the sport. And it would take more than words to explain how much I love the game. To be able to feel your blood pumping up and down your entire body, throbbing with adrenalin, and being able to feel the trace of a drop of sweat down the side of your face. And during a game, being able to hear the wind and the cheers rushing past your hot ears. How the wind hitting your face feels cool against the high temperature of your body. Feeling the heat almost vaporise and form a blanket around you when you stop, trying to breathe.

I can vouch for the fact that one of the best things invented by man is a team sport. Besides keeping you fit, it teaches you how to handle yourself in a team, it teaches you how to handle yourself in a team, it teaches you discipline, it teaches you how to be a gracious loser. In those forty minutes on the court, you can almost see a summary of life. You feel thrilled, pumped and happy, at the same time tense and worried, and at once powerful and confident. Looking at your opponent, your senses are tuned and your ears perked in anticipation of the next move that he/she might make. You judge a person's body language and make calculations using your spatial ability almost instantly. And when you're going for the shot knowing that you're going to convert, you're lifted by a confidence that you can't feel any other way, and as you take those last two steps to the jump and the shot, time slows down, and you can't see or hear anything else. And then you land to roars and shouts because the ball went through the ring in one beautiful swish.