As a student at Freed-Hardeman University, intramural sports are something I heard about from the very first week. Everyone said that I had to play and that it would be so much fun. Unfortunately, every time someone suggested that I join a team, I was cringing on the inside.

I am not very athletic. I tried playing soccer in high school and I played basketball for church from sixth grade until I graduated. However, that does not mean in ANY WAY that I am good at sports. I enjoy the feeling of being on a team, but the actual active side of sporting activities is not my forte.

So as a college freshman that was wiling to do just about anything to make friends, I thought, "How bad could it be?" and joined a team.

At Freed, the first sport that we play is softball. This terrified me. I have literally held a bat about two times ever in my life. I knew that I could run bases okay because of kickball, but hitting a ball was a whole different story. I didn't even own a glove, and actually still don't!

At my first game I went up to bat and I literally had no clue how to hold the bat. It felt so foreign in my hand. But, I swung and amazingly I didn't completely strike out! It was a great feeling! We continued playing and our team of mostly beginners, became pretty good! (Shoutout to our coaches for helping us improve so much!) I ended up making a lot of great friends and actually began to enjoy playing the sport.

Next at Freed, we play flag football. I come from a family of girls. My house consists of my mom, dad, and my two sisters. Football was never a common pastime for us. My dadmayhave shown me how to throw a football once and I definitely have watched football, but that was the extent of my experience.

At our first game, we all had absolutely no clue what any of the rules were or what in the world we were doing. Luckily, we had really nice refs who would give us suggestions like, "You need to have 4 lineman" or "Now is when you should throw the ball."

Football was really scary because, unlike softball where I could just sit in the dugout until I was at bat, football meant the entire team had to be all in. I couldn't just stand there and not do anything like I so often had in softball. Football was a lot more physical activity.

As the games went on we were able to learn a lot more about how it actually worked. We learned how to make plays and how to defend against the other team. Now, that doesn't mean that we won a lot or even that we made it to the championship, but in the end we had a lot of fun and that is what really counts.

I learned a lot from playing my first two intramural sports. I learned that sports can be fun when you are playing with a lot of people who are just as bad as you. I learned that you can find a lot of new friends by being on a team. I learned that you can have fun in almost any situation if you have a good attitude and are surrounded by a positive team! Finally, I learned that even though I am not athletic that doesn't mean I shouldn't play sports. Also, I shouldn't back down from trying new things just because I don't think I will be good! Trying new things can be tons of fun!

If you have intramural sports at your university, at least try to play! You never know, you could make some great friends and learn a lot about yourself!