Chicago Fire

The first game I attended was Chicago Fire FC vs. Columbus Crew FC. Considering this was the first game of my project, it's safe to say that I was very nervous to interview people. Not only is interviewing people nerve-racking but cold approaching strangers and then asking them for an interview made everything that much harder. Thankfully, the match I attended was Pride Night-themed so the stadium was more packed than usual, and finding friendly-looking people was easy. 

After a few brief conversations, I began to worry that because this match had a special theme, there were too many people who had never even played soccer and were just there for fun. Most of the conversations I had were just fans who were there for fun, they brought their kids, they just enjoyed watching soccer, they were invited by a friend, etc. 

One man I spoke to, named Julio, did not play soccer growing up but he explained that his 10-year-old son loves soccer. In fact, Julio said he used to hate soccer because he thought, "All the players do is pretend they got fouled for 90 minutes". However, funny enough, Julio is now the coach of his son's youth soccer team and he has began to love watching soccer because of the joy it brings his son.

For a while after attending this game, I thought maybe I just got unlucky with these interviews and this night was just a fluke with no real takeaways. However, I began to see a connection between all of the people I interviewed, none of them shared the same journey or dream that I had with soccer but, they all still experienced joy through soccer in some shape or form. None of the people currently or previously played soccer but they all still had some sort of relationship with soccer. 

This is when I began to realize that although I may stop playing soccer altogether one day, that does not mean I still can't experience the happiness, nervousness, and excitement that I get when I actually play. For example, I actually can't wait to experience Julio's situation! I probably won't be playing soccer once I have kids but it's going to be equally joyful, nerve-racking, and exciting to watch my kid play soccer. This applies to many situations; taking my wife to soccer games, attending soccer games with childhood friends, etc. Just because I won't play soccer professionally doesn't mean that I can't experience the same happiness that soccer brings me today when I play.