A special note from Christen you, our Reimaginers:
Rookie for Life is a motto, but it started as a mindset; and one I slipped into as easily as my boots on game day. It followed me to training, workouts, and the classroom. What could this day teach me? How could I level up? It was the soundtrack to my sporty spice life, the foundation of my approach to football: always a rookie, always more to learn.
Long after I was a freshman, I was a rookie. Way past my debut spotlight, I was a rookie. Even when the wins stacked up, I was… quite proudly… a rookie. From my first day, making daisy chains in the grass, to my final one, waving at all of you in the stands, I took that feeling—to live looking up— with me.
Now I’m an old retired pro. Ha! But I’m still a rookie even at that! I’m a rookie dog mom, a rookie chef, a rookie Auntie. I’m learning as I go and as I grow. Always eager to do it again but better, never convinced I know enough. This summer, I’ve entered a newer era: Rookie For Life: Fan Edition. I’m sure it comes as no surprise to any of you Reimaginers that for me, playing football is one thing, but being a fan of it is another. As the global game came knocking at our door this summer–with the promise of calling again next year from Brazil–I answered, and I underwent my fans-formation.
My pregame was a tight ponytail and a long look in the mirror, a private promise to myself. Today I’ve exchanged that for a new ritual: I enter the stands elbow to elbow with people from everywhere, joining the chants I once only heard from afar. I ride the waves of emotions differently than I used to. Game days were always a hotbed of emotional highs and lows, but there was only ever one game, one 90-minute battle. Now, there are three a day!
The blurred jerseys as I hit top speed, the smell of freshly cut grass, the ball at my feet—none of that lives in my new spot in the stadium. Now I sit and watch the game I once played, a spectator on the sidelines, quietly healing from the grief of lost love and dreams deferred.
Do I want to be down on the pitch? Hell yes. But I don’t resent this vantage point—if anything, I dare say, I love it. I’m making new, happy memories in a reimagined relationship with the sport.
theartofmadeline
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
baratheonpilled
origamiaround
areudirty