This school year was the first time I tried playing rugby. Before this, it was a completely unexplored sport to me. I never had any interest in the sport, but after playing rugby for the first time, I fell in love. There was no other sport like rugby, where the game's simplicity mixed with the complexity of all the niche rules. 

At first glance, everyone in rugby seems to be playing the same position and doing the same thing. Working as a team in a singular unit is so interesting to me. Every other team sport I've tried before had at least some individuality, and disputes within the team were more than possible. But with rugby, the discipline required receiving punishments as a team, and the culture around the sport sparks team building.

Within three to four months of the rugby season, our team felt more like a family than a group of people playing a sport together. We went through everything together, from failures to some successes, where everyone shared grief, sweat, and tears. It brought us together, and we felt connected. Some people I've never talked to before, but on the pitch, it felt like we were a team, a family. 

Towards the end of the season, when everything was on the line, and nobody had anything else to lose, I felt what it was like really giving my all for something; I pushed myself to run to tackle, and our team played our hearts out. Results were the last of my worries by the end of this season because, even if we were to lose every game, the experience was a success. People were injured, people played through injuries, and people pushed on. This is what trying rugby was like for me—it was never my primary goal to win.  Working together with our outstanding, excellent coach who would even participate in our punishments with us, working together with teammates who would always drop the ball, and getting punished together was what this experience was for me.