Driving for the Line

Everyone knows that Monday night football is a way of life for many people in today’s society. I believe that sports are an extremely important part of youth culture. And I don’t mean sitting in front of the television and rooting for your favorite team, I’m talking about that feeling when you know that your giving everything you’ve got physically for the greater good of a team. As children grow up they go through the typical first grade sports cycle. They go out for t-ball, join the little league, pose for adorable soccer photos, and if they’re lucky, it might carry them through those wonderful years of middle school. However, once you reach high school, it’s a whole different game.

Playing sports in high school is a typical cultural cliché. Everyone dreams of being the next Michael Phelps, or Shawn Johnson, and hears the classic stories from adults about how they were the star quarterback back in the day, and glow with pride as they slap you on the back for following gloriously in their footsteps. The buzz that surrounds athletes has been around for almost as long as athletics itself. There’s a part inside of everyone that wants to step up to that medal podium, and know that you’re the best one out there. Even in ancient Greece, wars were put on hold so that everyone could come together for the Olympics. Although youth athletics in our culture wouldn’t be the same without the thousands of years of society praising it and living through their children’s successes, nothing can compare to the feeling inside the athletes themselves.

As a high school athlete, I can personally say that being in the cultural environment of competitive sports and high adrenaline doesn’t compare to anything else I’ve ever experienced. Like most kids, I went through the typical sports loop. I swam, dove, danced, and skied, played softball, baseball, basketball, t-ball, and almost every other little league sport available. However, in seventh grade I started crew, and it has stuck with me ever since. It started out as a recreational activity. But as I started to win more, I began to become addicted to the feeling of pushing yourself to the complete limits, and seeing immediate results. I also had the opportunity to meet people who completely understood this feeling, and lived for that moment of crossing the finish line first knowing that you had exerted every once of your physical strength. The competitive, yet camaraderial cultural dynamic of a sports team is something you wont find anywhere else in society. Also, with sports like crew, there is a cultural appreciation, but lack of cultural understanding. I feel extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to be so thoroughly involved in youth athletics, and know first hand what it feels like to be a part of a long cultural tradition.

-Sophie