I was clutching my racket, balancing on my toes and rocking from side to side. I imaged a bead of sweat gathering on my temple, then slowly dripping down the side of my very determined face. The server on the opposing team tossed the ball up in the air, hitting it with a practiced skill. It bounced once in my court, and I rushed forward and gave it a good thwack. It soared back over the net, and the opposing team returned it. The rally had begun; let the game begin.
Except that's not how it happened. Not at all, actually. More like I clutched my racket and swung it around blindly, cawing out that I had no idea what I was doing. The server across from me was throwing the ball up and clumsily trying to hit it, without any hint of skill. Or practice, for that matter. Once the ball was actually hit, and the serve was good, the rally only lasted a couple of seconds. Someone always messed up.
Allow me to back up, give a little background information so you aren't completely lost and wondering why the heck this crazy girl is talking about tennis. In P.E, there are always different units of different activities or sports. Sometimes it's teamwork building, or strength training. Currently, my P.E class's unit is tennis.
Just imagine forty freshman who have never played tennis a day of their life unleashed on to the courts, armed with a racket and a ball. That isn't exactly how it happened, there were a few days of practice between the unleashing, but for a more dramatic effect we're going to pretend that's how it happened. All of us were fools on the court; we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. A few of us started to get the hang of it, to actually be able to serve it and get a rally going back and forth.
And then there were the others, i.e., me and my partner. Whatever game we were playing, it usually ended up with someone wildly chasing a ball that missed it's mark. It wasn't very much fun, let me tell you that. Who wants to play tennis when you can't actually get a good rally going? Every once in a while, if we were lucky, we would be able to return a serve and get a couple of rallies in before someone finally made that inevitable mistake.
For the most part, it was sending the other team on a wild goose chase for the ball. It could be fun, if you were really optimistic and said that all of the running was good exercise. But who am I kidding, not one person was like that. Basically, it sucked.
One Wednesday, when feeling particularly feisty with my racket, we came upon a team that I knew for a fact had a dynamite server. His serves were so hard to return, and I took a large gulp when I noticed that he would be serving in to my court. With a good smack, the ball came soaring over the net and I braced myself for the embarrassment that was soon to come. I swung my racket, hoping it looked like I knew what I was doing. I felt a vibration, and saw the ball go sailing back over.
I hit it! I actually hit it! It didn't make it in, wasn't anywhere near it actually, but at least I hit it! Perseverance, right? To make a long story short, I made my partner switch sides with me when I could no longer hit the ball that would come screaming at me. On a faulty serve that was kind of weak, my partner actually returned it. The opposing team hit it back over, straight at me. I took a step forward and swung, hitting the ball with a good thunk. It flew over, bouncing once and then going out of bounds.
I actually scored a point! Not only did I hit it, but it actually counted! All of the blood, sweat and tears that I had shed had finally paid off! Victory was sweet, so, so sweet. I finally had a taste of it, and I want more!
The moral of the story is this: you aren't always going to be immediately good at something. There are those times where you will discover that you had a hidden talent you didn't know about, but don't always expect that to happen. Not everything is going to be a piece of cake, and don't get frustrated with yourself when you don't get the hang of it right away. With hard work and perseverance, you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.
Even if that is tennis, which is an extremely difficult sport, might I add. Kudos to all of those tennis pros out there, and even to those who are pretty decent with a racket.
