New Year, Same Sport

A new year is a fresh start! Time to make changes, reflect and improve your life. But what if you don’t want to change? What if you reflect back and not only want to keep doing what your doing, but increase it?!

That’s how I feel about badminton, obviously, so there was only one place in the world I wanted to ring in the new year: the courts.

I asked my coach if we could have a New Years party, complete with dinner together and champagne, and of course he couldn’t refuse me. I blew my creative load on the Christmas party, and anyway, I wanted to play badminton, not prepare a party, so I left it up to him and his wife. They ended up doing a great job! Bringing fruit, snacks, a bottle of champagne and dumplings which his wife and another player stuffed and cooked and ordering dishes from our favorite nearby restaurant.

The dumplings overlooking the players.

We had a KTV machine to sing along to (or more often than not, just listen to music with) and we had a constant rotation of eaters and players. Some people came dressed in regular clothes, with their families just to have fun, while others, like me, came ready to play.

I actually arrived at 6:30 in the evening and played pretty hard until 9:30 when I finally took a break and ate for awhile. But then with a full belly it was back out until about 11 when I was exhausted and sat down to chit-chat.

Everyone took a break and we continued to snack on the food and play Pictionary in three big teams. We were so engrossed with the game, we didn’t even realize midnight had passed. About 10 minutes after midnight one guy noticed the time, yelled out “FIRST GAME OF THE NEW YEAR,”  and we all ran out to the courts to play.

I was dead on my feet at that point, but had to play, right?! I finally gave up about 45 minutes later and soon after got a ride home with my coach. I woke up the next day with a raging cold but it was ALLLLLL worth it.

It might have been almost 1 am, yet there were 3 courts with players playing. See? I’m not the only crazy one. There are other obsessed people as well.

I hope you had a good New Years celebration as well, and hope you got to spend it in a special place or with special people. Happy 2017!