Rugby Makes the World Go 'Round!

[I haven't written on my ACTUAL blog in a while. I am deeply deeply disturbed, saddened, and apologetic of my own lack of better judgement.]

**I need to do a little Negative Nancy rant before I can get to the actual moral of this post**

BEGIN NEGATIVE NANCY RANT:
...it's been a LONG week. It's actually been a LONG month, but it's really been a long[er] week this week.

I haven't been sleeping well, I've been working a lot of extra hours at work, and I've had an overload of graduate school work that I can never seem to keep up with.
Today in particular, I had a 10-hr workday that was great but absolutely exhausting because I'm in a direct care field. When I got home, I had less than an hour before I had to head out again for rugby practice. I ate a quick dinner, flopped onto my bed, and muttered some of the most sinful words in history: "Ugh...I kinda don't feel like playing rugby today."

GAAAAAAAAAAASP!!!

...but pretty much all of us have said it at one point or another. Everyone is guilty of this in some way, shape, or form.

Although #adulthood and #life gave me that initial thought and feeling, I still went through the motions of forcing myself to put on my rugby gear, get into my car and go to practice [saying I "forced" myself doesn't even sound right...].

Even in the car, I had some stupid anxious racing thoughts thinking about how tired I was and all the other things I still had to do outside of rugby...

But then I pulled into the parking lot at the indoor turf field where practice is held, and ALREADY the magic of rugby began...

HEY THERE'S MEL! SHE'S MY FRIEND!
HEY THERE'S CHANTAL! SHE'S MY FRIEND!
HEY THERE'S SKAR AND ERIKA! THEY'RE MY FRIENDS!
...and one by one SO MANY FRIENDS STARTED APPEARING!
FROM EVERY ANGLE!
I WAS SURROUNDED!


...I WAS SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS!!

And then if THAT wasn't enough...
WE GOT TO PLAY RUGBYYYY.
WE GOT TO EXERCISE [exercise makes you happy. science rules.]
WE GOT TO PASS A RUGBY BALL TO EACH OTHER.
WE GOT TO RUN INTO EACH OTHER.
WE GOT TO RUN BY EACH OTHER.
WE GOT TO HIT EACH OTHER.
WE GOT TO SWEAT WITH EACH OTHER.
WE GOT TO RELY ON EACH OTHER THROUGH TEAMWORK.
WE GOT TO MAKE MISTAKES, LEARN FROM THEM, AND SHAKE THEM OFF WITH EACH OTHER.
WE GOT TO LAUGH WITH [and at] EACH OTHER.
WE GOT TO WORK HARD TOWARDS A COMMON GOAL WITH EACH OTHER.
WE GOT TO HELP EACH OTHER.
WE GOT TO CHEER EACH OTHER ON.
WE GOT TO HAVE FUN WITH EACH OTHER.
BECAUSE THAT'S HOW RUGBY WORKS!!!!!!!!

So when you're tired from the shittiness that can be adulthood or from whatever else is going on in your life...when you're so done with everything that you REALLY and TRULY "don't feel like playing rugby today"...

THAT'S WHEN YOU NEED RUGBY THE MOST.

RUGBY IS NOT AN OBLIGATION, IT'S A PRIVILEGE AND A BLESSING.

Sometimes it can surprisingly be VERY hard to remember that, but you'll remember it the minute you step onto the field with your teammates :)