Team Building

Every week the division of the Air Force we work with gets together to play volleyball.  Prior to this week, I had witnessed this volleyball day twice.  It was fun to see how much fun they had playing volleyball together.  It was entertaining to see who was great, and who needed more practice.  After watching last time, one of the Sergeants asked if I was going to play.  I said, "I'm not very good."  And left it at that.

Since Kyle moved back to California, he has mentioned going with his sister to play volleyball a couple of times.  He seemed to have a good time, even said it was fun.  This week I thought more about volleyball.  I thought about how everyone I know who has been playing lately, was having a good time.  Then I thought about the people I saw playing who had plenty of room for improvement.  I decided that if Kyle can do, I can too and signed up for this week.

Let me begin this paragraph by saying that I have never once considered myself good at volleyball.  I feel incredibly awkward when I play and it always hurts my arms.  It is generally not a way that I enjoy spending my time.  I managed to convince two of my coworkers to join in the volleyball team-building activity as well.  We showed up at the gym and had a little time.  We warmed up by playing basketball.  Now basketball, is my sport.  I made a few shots, felt at home on the court, and started to feel pretty good about myself.  Then volleyball started. The first time I hit the ball thinking it would go over the net, or at least towards the net, and after I hit it, I watched it sail up, up, up, and behind my head out of bounds.  "Great."  I thought, "I can't believe I signed up for an hour of this."  Well, it wasn't all that bad.  While I wasn't as horrible as I had imagined I would be, I certainly wasn't as good as I had hoped I would be.  Part of my problem was the floor.  It was so dusty and slippery.  I could not stay on my feet.  I slipped a lot.  Most of the time I caught myself, but a few times I did not. 

Overall, it was a good experience.  I laughed a lot...at myself, and at others.  It was a fun day.  Today, I have some muscles aching that haven't for awhile-nothing wrong with that.  I am glad that I got over my fear of being the most horrifyingly bad volleyball player Camp Taji has ever seen and had a good time.  I am sure I will get better the more I play.  Maybe one of these days, I might even be considered good.