Just A Game

This past week I was in Boulder, Colorado for Ultimate Frisbee Nationals. It was a great experience. We left early Wednesday morning and returned the following Wednesday morning at 3 am. It was a few hours short of a full week. Overall, I visited 3 new states. Utah, Colorado and Nevada. I was only in the airport in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas for about an hour so I don't really count that going there.

When we arrived in Denver, it was completely flat. I was stunned that there we no mountains. After we arrived in Boulder, the mountains appeared. I really like the town of Boulder. The CU campus is amazing. I'm even considering going to grad school there. I got to see a family friend, which was really cool. There was a road that went into the mountains surrounding Boulder. I ended up driving up there 3 times throughout the week. The view was amazing.

On the Frisbee front, I learned some valuable things. We played two games Friday and then three on Saturday. We won 4 of 5 games putting us into the quarter-finals. These were the top 8 teams in the nation. We had a early game on Sunday morning vs Iowa. We ended up losing the game 10-15. About half the team was really upset and sad while the other have was just pretty quite. I was the latter. I had little emotional attachment to the game. Yes, it sucked that we lost, but I didn't feel the weight of it. I did not play in the game which may have had some affect. I knew we were going to lose on Sunday at some point. Even if we won against Iowa, we would have lost to Carleton.

The one thing that really stuck in mind was something our captain, who is graduating this year, said about 10 minutes after the game. He was untying his cleats, sad, but kinda joking around. He joked, "What will I do now? I pretty much just play Ultimate." He has devoted a majority of his time to a frisbee career that was over. I immediately realized that I did not want to be in his position in 3 years. Giving it all to team that will just end one weekend. I love playing Ultimate, but it's just a game.

This situation reminded me of me in high school. I began ski racing in 8th grade. I was pretty bad at it, but still really enjoyed it. My coach pushed me to train as much as I could. I ended up spending almost a month each summer working and training on Mt. Hood. During my senior year it all paid off. I won two race and ended up winning the Slalom, GS and Overall Metro League titles. It was an awesome accomplishment. It was like a dream come true. At the award ceremony, I was happy to be receiving three large trophies, but it was the trophies that were most important. My family and Kaysie were there to support me. Although I still look back at the experiences, it all ended. I invested so much time into something that wasn't that important. I don't regret a single minute of it, but I want to make sure that I am careful in the future.

Ultimate is just a really fun game. I want to get better, build stronger relationships on the team, and win, but not at the expense at thing that really matter. Cause when I graduate, I wont care how good at Ultimate I am, it will be about the experiences.

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