Team Spirit

I was part of a girls' football team when I was younger. I really enjoyed playing for many reasons. I really liked the sport, I liked being with my friends and I loved the feeling after a match and during training. The togetherness was awesome. Where we were all friends, the journey to the match was always hilarious and adrenalin-fuelled. When I was in the team I genuinely thought (and still do) that we were the best sports and had the best team spirit out of all the local teams. If we won we would shake the hands of the other team and smile nicely while we did, not talking of our win around them and if we lost, we'd shake their hands and congratulate them while being as genuine as we could (we were ten after all - we wanted to win!). When the team would play at ours we would always chant their name (it sounds a bit scary thinking about it but it was always a nice thing) at the end to show our respect. Whether we won or lost, the feeling was amazing because we did it together. The journey back from away games would always be great. If we lost, we wouldn't dwell on anyone's mistake (and claim the lose as a team loss, not because of an individual, naturally) or the loss, we'd look forward to the next match, pumped. If we won, we'd chant and have ten year old banter. Training was a highlight of my after-school-week. We all loved our coach and together, as a team, we had the best time. I loved it.

This sportsmanship-like feeling isn't something that I've stopped feeling since moving onto secondary school and college or something that applies only to sport. It has been felt a variety of times for a variety of different reasons. It's happened in horrible events where I've felt the coming together of people to help everyone out; I've felt it on multiple sports events; I've felt it when I've performed in music concerts with others and we're all nervous; I felt it at GCSE when we were all terrified of walking into the exam hall; I especially felt it when all of my friends and I left secondary school and the togetherness of our old stories and jokes were helping us to not become overly upset that we were moving onto another stage in our lives.

Friendship is also a lot like sportsmanship. You take one for the team sometimes. You spare someone's feelings. Equally, you tell your friend something they really need to hear, even if they may not want to hear it. You share the good and the bad times. You accept that sometimes something might not end the way you would like: They may not accept blame for something. They may make a mistake that you warned them not to make. You can correct them when they're wrong when it will help them out. Friendship is where team spirit is needed the most.

A lot of things are like playing a sport; life is, in effect, our biggest match; sometimes losing, sometimes winning. My point is (finally, you're getting to the point!), good things and bad things happen. I've displayed where I've felt a lovely, unifying feeling in both triumphant and sad times. Make the most of moments when you can.

By the way, I am posting every day until Christmas on my blog and you can read about it HERE.

Cheers & Chants,

The Girl in the Moonlight.