Basketball

Players like Jimmer are the reason I love basketball. Basketball used to take up a lot of my life. It was the first thing I ever felt really passionate about. I used to wake up early on the summer mornings and dribble up and down my driveway because in junior high, Mr. Blackmer challenged me to become as good of a dribbler as Logan Mendenhall (then the high school league's best player) and I was determined to live up to that challenge. I played every single day of the summers, even if it was windy and my shots would never drop. I seriously cared about basketball so much. I have pages in my journal about how much I loved it and what players I looked up to and things I needed to work on. In high school, I had surgery that put me out for a year, but then decided to not play after that. It was a really hard decision but it was a right decision because I discovered a lot of other things about myself that I don't think I would've otherwise. Mainly, I discovered that basketball wasn't the most important thing, which is how I had previously been treating it. I think one of the biggest blessings is that I put more effort into my schoolwork. I developed a motto that the better grades I got, the farther away from Magrath I could get. And even though I had a bad attitude and that all seems really dumb now, it's a principle that I still think about. The better grades I get, the farther I'll go. It seems common sense but a lot of people don't actually realize it. Anyway, back to what I was initially talking about. I ended up forgetting about basketball for quite a while. I'd shoot around here and there but usually it would be a few months between here and there. The point of this story is that I have played more basketball this year than I have since grade 10. And honestly, it's because of the BYU Cougars basketball team. Especially Jimmer. He reminds me exactly why I love basketball. Because basketball is a really really good time. It is SO. Fun. I craved playing for the first time in a long time this year. I still know what's important and I don't by any means play very regularly, but seriously. I love basketball. I just needed a reminder.