basketball: part one

Very few people understand the intimate relationship I have with basketball. It's strange, I know, to put it in such a way, but my relationship with basketball has brought me both great joy and great pain, just as any relationship with another living, breathing being. In retrospect, the few people who have been supportive have to no end been the best encouragement I've ever had. My mother, who drove me to countless games, spending hours and hours, driving miles and miles. My sister who has always rooted for me all the years. My best friend who always understood that I would choose basketball over most everything else, yet still was there to welcome me with lemon-pepper chicken. A small group of brothers who I shared some of the best times of my life on the basketball courts till four in the morning. These people have been integral pillars in my basketball experience.

For a time being, I was made to feel ashamed for something I loved so much. Yet, the blame lies solely on me. Doubting and questioning myself ultimately made me feel less of a being simply for an unexplainable and undeniable desire I held within me. There is so much more to life, yet who can rationalize a passion?

During this period of uncertainty, my good friend DC assured me the "passion would return." I wrote off this shot of optimism as a useless placebo and felt I had lost a good friend forever. But God does not plant expendable passion.

It's funny, almost ironic in a way, that I am rediscovering my friend in the country my parents left. I've come across of group of people, random gentlemen, some young, some old, who have truly encouraged and spurred on my love for the sport. It's meeting people like them that helps me to remember that basketball has given me opportunities I would never otherwise have had.

For a long time now, I've struggled with the question "what are you passionate about?" I had discarded basketball because I felt ashamed. But running away from something that makes you happy is just running towards the wrong end of the tunnel. My friend Jae said, "I envy your passion for basketball... I wish I had something I loved that much." Hearing that, I realized... yeah, I am kinda lucky.