Kickin' it with the Knicks

Every New Year's Eve, Rhiannon's best friend comes over and we celebrate together. Every year we make bingo cards full of goals for the next year. This year, I had two goals surrounding sports on my card. The first was "learn how to watch basketball" and the second was "attend more live games".

Hockey, Baseball, and Football are all sports that I know very well. I grew up in a hardcore SEC football household. Football was my mother's religion (except on Easter). Although, I didn't learn anything about it until 2012 when the NY Giants went to the Superbowl and I cheered for them only because I just knew I was going to move to NYC one day (still hasn't happened, probably never will lol). But that was the game that I learned how football was played. I grew up in a town that had a SPHL hockey team, so I grew up going to games and learned early on how hockey is played. I played softball when I was younger, so of course baseball came easy, too. But one sport that I never really paid attention to was basketball.

Rhiannon has loved basketball for a very long time and has always wanted me to get into it. So this year, I made it my goal to learn how to watch basketball. I picked my team, NY Knicks (sticking with a theme here incase you haven't noticed lol), and started watching games. Rhiannon taught me the terminology and what was happening on the court. After my second game, I was hooked. It was fast paced, much like hockey, you blink and you miss something. I love sports that are fast like that, they hold my attention. One night last week, I was wondering how much tickets would cost to see the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, so I looked up tickets. I saw that the Knicks were playing the Pistons IN DETROIT this week. Now, I knew this game was happening, Rhiannon and I had talked about buying a day pass for SlingTV to watch the game...but it never occurred to me that instead of watching it on TV...I could just go to the game in person. After talking it over with Rhiannon, we will be seeing the NY Knicks play IN PERSON this week. I have never been to a professional game before, so I am a little nervous but very excited. Watching on TV, the energy in these arenas seem magnetic and I am ready to be part of it!

If I am being honest, the real reason that we chose the Knicks as our team is because of the Law & Order: SVU cast...they, specifically Mariska Hargitay, are HUGE Knicks fans. When we found this out, we decided to tune into their game to see if they were worth the hype...turns out they are. These boys are incredible athletes, but what stuck out to me more than that was how truly happy they are to be on that court. The first game we watched they lost their asses, but their smiles never left their faces. Jalen Brunson called a players only meeting and lifted his team up. They came back from that game, playing like an actual team. When we watched them play the Lakers, it was a very tight game, but again they never stopped smiling. They were all cutting up with each other, laughing, and just having a great time! When I watch a game, that's what I want to see. I want to see a team that wants to be there, that is having fun. Of course, there are times when anger and attitudes come into play (trust me, you should have seen me during some of the calls the refs made during the game against the Denver Nuggets), but overall if you aren't having fun...why are you playing?

So, how does this tie into my journey you may ask? I get to mark 2 squares off my bingo card this week...and it all comes back to finding myself. Learning more about who I am and what brings me joy in life. I am so thankful and excited to continue on this journey...this joyful journey. I can't wait to see what else I learn. I hope you will stick around...I am so happy you're here!

#joyfuljourneyhappyheart