Sharism: The athlete wanna be

I just finished watching FIBA World Basketball, FIFA World Player Gala 2009 and ESPYS 2009. I can't help imagining myself standing along with the world's greatest, shaking off my jitters and sprinting away to the finish line behind the loud cheers from the bleachers.

Yes!! Becoming a great athlete has always been one of my greatest dreams. wait!!! Let me rephrase that.. Becoming the World's Greatest Billionaire Athlete has been one of my greatest dreams.

I have tried almost all sports that I could think of since I was a kid- dodgeball, football, basketball, table tennis, swimming, badminton, volleyball, gymnastics, track and field but I failed to master any of them. I’ve had so much fun memories playing with those sports—aside from the usual sipa, ten-twenty, chinese garter, bicycle, agawan-base, patintero, habulan, steal the bacon, piko and luksong baka/tinik. I was always energetic during physical exercises. It was a piece of cake. I would always be the one who would record the longest jump, the longest reach, the most number of sit ups and push ups. I’m always game. In elementary, I am one of the seven players competing for water polo. I may be small but it's a good thing I'm taking swimming classes by that time. In high school, I tried out and got in the volleyball varsity team.

Last summer, I fell in love with gymnastics and thought I was meant to become a great gymnast like Beth Tweedle, Susan Jackson or Svetlana Khorkina. I even tried my luck at UST Salinggawi but I ended up crying to my mom and asking her to enroll me in a gymnastics class at the Rizal sports complex. My Tuesday and Saturday schedule transformed from watching early cartoon shows to doing cartwheels, handstand, round 0ff, back handspring but when school comes again I stop and my love for gymnastics was short-lived.

In college I tried arnis, korfball and now softball this was played outdoors then, so I had to endure the mid-day heat and go to my first subject with crisp-looking skin tones. Our team always won, I always hit a homerun so I guess I was a good batter after all. And yes!! I'm so flattered that my groupmates were calling me "ate galing" or "Jennie Finch of UST" I really feel that softball was for me, that even I have to wake up 5 am just to get in to my 9am class I was fine with it..

In my free time I am fond of playing chess and games of the general.

I would imagine what my life would be had I become one of them. Maybe I was not here sitting on the sidelines and watching them reach for their dreams; maybe I was the one out there, training rigorously every single day and competing against the best of the worlds before a huge crowd.

Maybe it was my picture, plastered on every sports page.

No regrets. I always love sports. I may not be the resident NBA buff or one of the football geniuses, but hey, I understand my turf. I understand how athletes' heartaches, frustrations and the struggle to reach not only their dreams, but also the country’s. I understand their pain—physically, emotionally and mentally—when they tried their best and it just wasn’t good enough.

So even though I did not become the next Serena Williams, Jackie Joyner-Kersee or Lorena Ochoa I am thankful that I’m still in the field. Thankful that, even I’m just another athlete wannabe, I can still feel what it is like being an athlete-by being a fan.