It's always the little things that brighten up your day...
For me, Saturday morning is netball match morning, usually for away games. I had to be at school for 7:50am this morning to get on a coach for an hour and a half journey to a school in South Manchester.
I won't lie, I HATE Saturday away matches and I am losing my interest in netball a little, so my mood was not brilliant this morning. For most of the journey I buried myself in reading a book as I felt too tired to chat to people.
It turned out that the coach got lost in Manchester, so it took 2 hours to get there. And whilst we had been travelling I had noticed the darkening weather. Our netball matches were outside, and now we had threatening rain and a biting wind. Brilliant, I thought, just flippin' perfect!
As people I know will tell you, I am not a morning person, despise cold weather and I was thinking about all the things I could be doing this morning that didn't involve standing in a t-shirt and skirt in freezing temperatures. We got ready for the match, and I stood in the shooting circle waiting for the other team. We only had 6 players as our Centre broke her finger on Thursday, so we were at an immediate disadvantage. The other team were soon ready and the Goalkeeper came into position next to me. We were ready to play.
Now, when you're Goal Shooter in netball like me, you can only go in one third of the court. That usually means you stand still for most of the match, especially if your team is losing. I'm used to standing in silence with the other team's goalkeeper standing there beside me, who is often bawling out 'get free!', 'that was never their ball!' and the all famous 'snatch it off her!' And today, not only would I be stood there, but I'd be stood there and shivering as well.
But then, the Goalkeeper began to talk to me. She was really nice, and we were soon having conversations about all sorts of stuff. Her name, I found out, was Holly, and we were nattering throughout practically the whole match, whilst I was shooting and she defending included! She congratulated me when I scored, which I don't think I would have done if I had been the GK. It turns out that we lost that match, but it felt really good afterwards to shake hands with her and say 'well played'.
My mood has been brightened for the rest of the day. It's the little things in life that just makes the world go round, isn't it? I think the moral of this story is, even when you feel really low, just a smile and kind words really make a difference to yourself and others. I came away from that match feeling so much better than before. I don't think that we can ever be reminded enough of this, but I think this little story fits it. Try it, and brighten up your day too!http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/biggrin.gif
