Lil' Baby Rugger Gets Serious

I'm going to slowly but surely try and post a bunch of my blog entries all the way back from when I first started playing rugby (definitely not every single one, nobody wants to hear about my bleeding feet after a practice lol).

I came across this oldie and thought it had a nice little message behind it:

September 15th, 2008: I LOVE THE RUGBY TEAM. ♥ But I can't write my paper until I get this off my mind (maybe that's just an excuse for procrastination but oh well). Today at rugby practice, I noticed that I was actually too happy and too giggly. It was affecting the way that I was playing and that's really really bad. It may not have been the whole reason why I was playing off today, but it sure was probably at least half of the reason. I'm really upset with myself for doing that, but at least I am addressing the situation and giving myself constructive criticism. In the second half of practice, I even proved to myself that I was right in my theory. I focused more and I was more serious when we were practicing scrums and at the same time in between scrums and running or when someone wasn't explaining something I was smiley and happy. When I did this, I played much better and people didn't think that I was any less happy than I am. In fact, if I'm smiley and giggly all the time and I suck like I did the first half of practice, then no one would really like me or respect me because then I'd just look like some idiot bimbo prouncing around. I think it's because I'm a hard worker and strong in rugby but at the same time really happy and nice that makes people like me on the team. I don't think that I can ever really be smiley and happy all the time when playing rugby or else I won't be good at it, especially since I don't even know the whole game yet. I'm still really new at this, and I need to be totally focused and working hard all the time. Hopefully I can keep that in the back of my mind next practice. Luckily today and Saturday have been giving me wake up calls, and I think it's really going to help me play better.

I think my lil' baby college self is onto something - there's a time for work and a time for socializing. And just because you're working hard or staying focused, doesn't mean you're not happy or not having fun [or not a fun person]! An area where I would challenge my baby college self is in this quote:

"...if I'm smiley and giggly all the time and I suck like I did the first half of practice, then no one would really like me or respect me because then I'd just look like some idiot bimbo prouncing around."

I would argue that I'd be equally as pissed [if not more pissed] if a teammate of mine was goofing off, not paying attention, and the best player on the team. Performance doesn't earn you a right to slack off in practices and not take it seriously.