It was the beginning of summer, and homecoming was in full steam--and as a matter of fact, so was the FIFA World Cup! In all honesty, I had no clue what the World Cup was before summer, but given that my boss spent our lunch breaks streaming the game on his computer in 1080p (instead of sitting at his desk and working like usual), I decided that this had to be something big. So I got in on the frenzy as well--and boy was it exhilarating--this wasn't like normally watching a sport on TV...there was something different about this--a certain excitement that just kept jumping out at every moment. Then one afternoon after a skit practice, me and a good friend of mine were talking about the excitement of soccer, when he happened to mention that a group of Lynbrook kids played soccer at Kevin Moran Park. I was ecstatic! Now, I hadn't played soccer since I was 5 and continuously kicked the ball at the opposing teams' faces, but I was sure that I could learn! When we'd first arrived, the only thing that could be seen was chaos--there were 10-15 people per team, and no distinction between them--if someone scored on their own goal, they would just laugh it off and keep playing. That was what I saw as the beauty of the game--everyone played in harmony; we played for fun; and we played for the best summer ever. We all laughed together and had the time of our lives. On the first day that I'd been there, I knew nobody, but through all the laughter, fun, and sweat of summer, walking home on the day of the last game I realized I was walking away with 30 new friends and memories that I'll cherish forever.
