"Very few things beat roughing it out with a group of team-mates!" Duke
On a much lighter note, I have put up photographs of the teams that I have been a part of over the years.
The moment I left university was the moment I missed being in a team. Throughout my four years in NTU, I was part of the floorball team and many of my fondest, most vivid memories were formed as a result of that involvement. Of course, that was also when I made the national team and fulfilled a childhood dream of representing my nation in something.
In the years following my graduation, I was part of my church soccer team and though we did not have the best of results in the church league, I look back with a smile too. I also play in the National Division Two Floorball league with a team of old university teammates, church friends, youths and friends' friends. We almost suffered relegation last year after two years of finishing comfortably in mid-table, so we have a serious point to prove this year. Ironically, I was in my best form for a long while last year and that made it doubly painful.
Just three weeks ago, the Discovery Channel friends that I play soccer with every Tuesday at the Cage asked me to play for them and we started with a bang - a 5-3 win (though all 3 goals were not my fault, it must be emphasised).
I love being part of a team and I love the adrenaline rush that comes when you take to the field or the court with a group of people you know would watch your back and brave the fires of competition together. The spirit, the camaraderie, the enjoyment, the pain - there's a whole range of emotions that you go through but, best of all, there are so many others going through them with you. The memories that form as a result stay with you for life.
That's why I always tell the boys to savour and enjoy being a part of the soccer team. Very rarely do we find a group of friends who perspire, cry, laugh, cheer, fight, bleed and push on together with you. That is the very essence of a team - individuals thinking as one and doing as one. You won't know what you are missing until it's gone.
Over the years, I have also seen my maturation and growth as a person because of my involvement in team games. I am highly competitive, sometimes far too much, and when I was younger, I only wanted to win because of me and it was not easy to be a team-mate of mine. I demanded extraordinary levels of commitment because I felt that that was what I was giving. I did not really think about the team as I was too pre-occupied with achieving the results I wanted.
Thankfully, I was always good at what I did or I was just fortunate enough to play in a position no one wanted. Yes, no one wants to be a goalkeeper. Everyone wants to score and do the glamorous stuff, not stop balls from flying past you. However, I do enjoy it. Nothing beats a flying save, a reflex save, the look on the forward's face when you thwart his best efforts, defying the odds that are always in the attackers' favour. Some of the looks I have received after keeping a ball out are etched indelibly in my mind's eye and I still smile or snigger when I think about it.
I guess that was why I was always on the team, even though I was really self-centred. There was simply no other goalkeeper, or certainly no one who enjoyed it as much. They needed me, but did not necessarily want me, on the team. I mean, we were all good friends off the field, but on it, I was not easy to live with. It was totally a Jekyl and Hyde thing. Thinking back, I do feel a flush of embarrassment at how childish and immature I must have been.
Over the years, I can safely say that I was wanted and needed too. As you grow older, you tend to be more mellow, less fiery and certainly more others-minded. That is something I am certainly thankful for, and I am sure my current teammates feel the same way.
