Unlike most of the sports I played, I didn't have passion and enthusiasm for bowling. A lot of people may be surprised by now considering that bowling is the sport that I am good at (compared to my friends of course). I was sort of 'nudged' into playing bowling by my father 7 years ago. My father's friend was into selling bowling equipments so one day he asked if I would like to play bowling. Given my open attitude towards new sports, I took up his offer. Before I knew it, I was given a personal coach, bowling ball, and shoe. But still I wasn't fond of bowling. The only reason I played was because I felt obligated as I'd received so many stuffs.
As they put it, you won't last long doing something you have no interest in. I became less committed and eventually I stopped training. It was after I followed my friends to join a youth training program that I started liking bowling. And soon, I became better and better as i moved up to a more advance training group. It was then that my passion for bowling really got ignited. I was looking forward to all my training. It didn't matter that I had to attend trainings 3 times a week after school or tuition. I was enthusiastic and the coaches noticed this. I was the most committed. I remember how I was the only one out of 20 plus bowlers who attended training. I stopped bowling for a while to focus on PMR and after PMR, the bowling alley was the 1st place I went.
Before long, SPM was around the conner and I made a decision to quit training. And after SPM, bowling was just another sport to me. I didn't stop playing but I didn't exactly go play bowling every week either. I only played when I had nothing else to do. I wasn't even excited when I was made president of my school bowling club and I definitely didn't want to be president for my college's bowlnig club. Yes, my passion for bowling was gone. I had forgotten how much I loved bowling. How much I loved preparing for a competition and the the competitive atmosphere during the competition.
But then something amazing happened this past few months. I started practicing for the inter college bowling competition which just ended last thursday and I realized how much I missed bowling. I'm not talking bout bowling to pass time but bowling like seriously. I had enjoyed bowling more during the inter college competition than I have in the last few years . One of our doubles won gold and it was so inspiring to see them played for the medal. They played badly in the 1st game and was in 9th position. But then they fought and clawed their way back to win the gold medal in the next 2 games. I was inspired and couldn't wait for the team event the next day. In the team event, we started off slowly and got 4th after the 1st game. But then, we lost focus and dropped to 7th position. And then I experienced something I have never experienced before in all my years of bowling. I fought. I refused to give up along with all my teammates. We played our best in the last game and got back to 4th place. We were trailing the team bowling in the same lane as us by 90 plus pins after 2 games and we beat them by 110 plus pins in the last game. If the team event was just based on the last game we would have won gold. But instead, we could only managed 4th place.
Although, we didn't win any medal for the team event, I walked away from the competition feeling something I had not felt in a long time. I was proud of my effort. And for the 1st time in a long time, I actually want to play bowling not because I'm the president of the bowling club or because I feel obligated but because I actually enjoy playing bowling.
I think... I think I'm beginning to love this game.
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