What is it like to watch sports for the very first time?
Well, I don’t know anything about sports so my first encounter did not come until I was 24 and my boyfriend made me attend a sports game.
My first sporting event was a Western Hockey League (WHL) Medicine Hat Tigers vs Lethbridge Hurricanes game.
The first thing I noticed is that the event was not as packed with spectators as you see in movies.
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There was also not as much cheering as I thought there would be.
I found the environment engaging enough that I knew when to cheer for a goal and when to yell at a referee.
I’m sure you are wondering how I found the game, well I found the game to be entertaining for the most part.
I found that the game was full of action on the ice so I was able to keep engaged with what was happening.
Sometime previous to attending the game I had read Hockey for Dummies in hopes of being able to follow what was happening.
It helped a little, but I was still a little lost on what the rules were.
There were a few fights during the game, but was told that it was a normal thing to happen between Medicine Hat and Lethbridge.
My second game experience was different than the first: it was another WHL game, but now I knew what to expect.
I found myself cheering a little louder and getting more into the game. I found myself sad when “our team” didn’t score.
This is something I found puzzling.
Growing up as someone who was trained to hate sports I began to wonder if this was just me being rebellious or did I find a repressed love for sports?
Honestly, I would say neither is right.
Based on the fact that if I was not attending the game with the people I was with, I may not have been cheering at all, or have been willing to try it in the first place.
So my conclusion is, sports is more of a social experience than anything else.
You wouldn’t go to a game by yourself the same as you wouldn’t go to a movie by yourself. And when you go to work or school, the recent game becomes a larger topic of conversation, just as if you’d seen the newest hit movie.
So, sports are not as bad as I once thought them to be.
