That photo was me when I was a little girl. I’ve always been a Lakers girl at heart.

Growing up, my Dad and I would always watch basketball. Our favorite team in the NBA is the Los Angeles Lakers. I remember all throughout middle and high school, he and I would watch Lakers games together on TV. I acquired so much Lakers gear throughout the years, but I’ve lost some along the way. What matters the most to me are my two favorite Lakers jerseys because they hold all of my memories from my younger days. I’m glad I got to bring them back to UC Irvine with me along with my old Lakers baseball cap.

I miss the old days of watching Lakers games with my Dad. Now that I’m away in college, I’ve come to realize that I’ve forgotten how much I love the Lakers and how much I love sports in general.

I can’t pinpoint exactly what made me forget it, but it probably has something to do with the following: being busy with school and work, not owning a TV, or simply not being at home to watch games with my Dad.

Now, I know that the Lakers haven’t been in the best shape since their back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010, but I still see potential in them. After Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol left the Lakers (two of my favorite players) I thought, “Why should I still be a Lakers fan if they aren’t winning anymore?” I’d always get this question from people who disliked my team too, but whenever I look back at it, the Lakers were and will always be MY team. Better yet, the Lakers are my Dad and mine’s team. I was born a Lakers fan. I shouldn’t be influenced by what other people think about my favorite team. I learned not to be influenced by what others think through my love for sports.

I know Lakers are MY team because I used to get really sad and melancholic whenever they lost games. I want to feel that way again now that I’ve grown up into a young adult in college. I want to get back into what I have always loved throughout most of my 19 years of my life. I want to be that sports nerd that I always was in middle and high school. After all, I wanted to study Kinesiology when I was a junior in high school in hopes of working for the NBA or MLB one day. Let’s face it, science and medicine isn’t really my thing. Here I am writing about it, though, I can say that I’ve found my niche in expressing my long old love for sports through my writing.

So along with the Lakers, my Dad and I watched a lot of baseball and football. He and I love the Los Angeles Dodgers. When it comes to football though, my Dad and I don’t particularly have the same teams. I don’t think he has a specific team(s) in mind. I go for the San Diego Chargers and the San Francisco 49ers, but I’m really open-minded whenever Eli Manning or Peyton Manning plays. I think the Manning brothers are great quarterbacks in the history of the game.

In the summer of 2014, I got into soccer a lot primarily due to the FIFA World Cup. The first players I heard of that year were the big names of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. May I add, they’re such great players with really handsome faces — such a girly thing to say, I know, but it’s true. Now that my love for sports is slowly coming back, I decided this week that I’d choose my team from La Liga. Guess whom I chose. Yes, Real Madrid, but I’m also open-minded with Barcelona. After all, Real Madrid has Cristiano and Barcelona has Lionel. Both athletes were the reasons why I started liking soccer.

My old love for sports just hit me randomly one-day last week. I don’t know what sparked it though my guess is that it had to do with me being stressed out from my assignments. I then checked the Lakers vs. Cavaliers live feed on my Snap Chat and that’s when it hit me. I miss watching my Lakers play, let alone my other teams play too. It’s a weird thing to think about, I know, but it made me really excited and happy thinking about all of my favorite teams and my old addiction to sports. If it weren’t for my Dad, however, I wouldn’t have been into sports. I’m really thankful that he introduced the world of sports to me at a really young age.

I really wish I could be at home with my Dad to watch our favorite teams play games together. I know he still watches the Lakers on his own whenever he has the time because over winter break, I saw snippets of a Lakers game while hanging out in the living room that December. I even snapped a photo on my Snapchat about how much I still love the Lakers. Looking back and reflecting on all of this had made me realize that I want to get back into my old love for sports. After all, I have had the ESPN app on my iPhone for the longest time ever. Maybe it was a destined calling that I should get back into what once made me really happy and excited when I was younger. Also, sports were something special that I shared with my Dad and I want to continue that special bond.

Note to my dad: Thank you for introducing the wonderful world of sports to me. Being home over the NBA All-Star Weekend, last weekend, really brought back memories of the days we used to watch the Lakers and Dodgers together. Hopefully we get to watch live games at Staples Center and Dodgers Stadium in the future. I love you, #1 Dad in the world.