The Beginning of My Everything

Sports and games have always been a big part of my life.  I remember when I was young I always wanted to make a game out of everything.  Whether it was eating, swimming in the pool, or even going down the street to my friend's house, I would always want to make my activities a little more interesting by turning them into games.  At dinner I'd have eating competitions with my friends, in the pool I'd gather everyone up to play "Marco, Polo", and when I wanted to walk to a friends house I'd race to see how fast I could get there.  Everyone else would just say I was too competitive and always wanted an opportunity to win something, but to me turning things into a game just made everything more fun.  Before I actually began to play any sports, I remember just being in my neighborhood playing "Hide n' Seek" and having a huge rush of excitement any time I made it to base or was caught in a one on one with whoever was "it."  I liked everything about playing games, sometimes even when I lost.  It was after these games that sports came into my life and my parents decided to sign me up for a recreational soccer team when I was 5.  They said that their intention of signing me up was so that I wouldn't get fat, but soccer turned into something more than an activity I would do simply to stay fit.  Soccer, among other sports became part of my everyday life.