What’s it like to give it all we got

I recently had a tournament with my school basketball club. The school I go to is a fairly new one, so I got to experience what it’s like being the first generation of a school. Of course, our generation didn’t have anyone to look up to because we were the 先輩 of whoever came to our school. That goes for the basketball club as well.

I joined the basketball club in the third term of my first year, and have been representing my school for more than 2 years now. Since there were no upper students to look up to, my friends and I had to go through everything by ourselves, such as learning responsibilities, how to have true sportsmanship, and how to stay disciplined under hard practices. After two and a half years of training, learning, and experiencing, we participated in the final tournament of the junior high school era with pride.

Out of the maybe 20 schools who participated in the competition, we climbed up the tournament until the top 8. We were the underdogs for most games, but we still managed to fight through. On the game that decided the top 4s, we lost to one of the best teams in our regions. Although we lost, it was a very close game, and I’m happy how much we were able to pressure the other insanely experienced team.

There were things we could’ve done better. I could have conditioned my body better, I shouldn’t have missed that shot, blah blah blah.

The thing is, I realised that these thoughts go on literally forever. There are infinite amount of things we could’ve done better. There are infinite amount of things I shouldn’t have done. But at the end of the day, the game ended. There is no point in looking back at the past mistakes and beating myself for them. 
Hey, I’m not saying that there’s no point in improvising mistakes and becoming better. I will definitely do that. What I’m saying, is that instead of being sad of the loss, I think I should be proud of how much we did. I believe that we as a team gave it all we got for the game. I’m extremely satisfied with that.

I think that what I’m feeling right now is very rare. It might even be one of those things you experience only a dozen times in your life. It’s hard to put it into words, but I’ll try:
I feel like a retiring professional sports player. To be honest, I literally am one because this was the last tournament of junior high school. The reason I say this is because of how proud I am of how much we did. Our team, especially those in my grade went through uncountable amount of struggles, and were able to overcome them. Although we lost, we gave all we had. I feel like I achieved what I wanted as a team member. I feel like we all were able to achieve it. Only thing our generation can do from now, is to trust and believe in the younger ones. Im only 14, so it feels weird to be saying that. But nevertheless, I am extremely satisfied and happy to be able to experience leading and growing such a beautiful team!

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Ps. It’s not over yet! We still have high school!! Let’s keep going!!!!!