It’s 8 PM. I’m lining the gaze of 20 with my sorority sisters, as I’m about to sprint my heart out to possibly catch a football. A throw lifts everyone’s gaze up toward the sky, and I see a weirdly-shaped ball aiming for my head. A catch and mini sprint later, I soon feel my flag being pulled from my waist. Yeah, maybe all I did was catch a ball, but for some reason, I felt over the moon about it. I went to my nearest teammate just to double-check that I did, indeed, catch a football.
Destiny, my roommate, put together a flag football team at the beginning of the quarter. Upon being asked if I wanted to join, I was initially hesitant. I didn’t know anything about football, and I was gearing up for a tough quarter with a large workload. But, after a bit of convincing, I joined the team.
So there I was, on the turf in my sorority shirt and Air Force Ones, feeling completely lost as someone explained the rules to me. We came up with little chants, had cheerleaders on the sidelines and ate oranges after our game. We may have never made it past the middle of the field, nor did we do a great job defending our end zone, but I still walked away tired and happy.
Working out in college has been a personal struggle of mine. I find it really hard to lock in a time to go to the gym or to be active in general. My workload is usually all-consuming, and when I do have the time to work out, I simply just want to relax or do something fun with my friends. With intramural flag football, I found the compromise that I needed. Getting to run around on a field for an hour every Monday night brought me back to being a nine-year-old kid kicking a ball around my local field for my community soccer team. On those Monday nights, all I needed to focus on was having fun and goofing around with my friends. All thoughts of deadlines and intrusive “I should probably be studying” subsided for the duration of our games.
I really recommend intramural sports for everyone! It is something that I may have been really hesitant to try out, but I ended up having a blast learning a new sport and connecting with my inner child again. College at its core is about learning new skills and trying new things, so make the most of UCLA’s programs and try out an intramural team with your friends.