Now, I really have to ask myself…how much do I want the grand prize trophy? Badminton has been pretty important to me up until now, but on the other hand, I got into badminton because I thought it’d be less competitive. You know, a sport with such a light little thing that you hit with feathery little rackets, and it flies up and comes right down like a fairy. Everyone has a great time in Badminton, right? It’s like tennis, but exclusively for people who don’t want to get involved in all of that racket-smashing silliness. And less grunting. WAY less grunting.
So that didn’t turn out. Not since I met Samantha and had her as my badminton partner. She’s so competitive, it’s even starting to affect ME. I only learned later that she was kicked out of her last club for savaging the tennis netting every single time she lost, along with her racket and any other racket she could find. Samantha said she took anger management classes with a guru, but they didn’t help in the end. She had one final tennis match where the lost on a tiebreaker, and she was so enraged that she grabbed a lighter from a guy watching and set the tennis nets on fire. Hence…why she was kicked out.
Of course, I found out all of this, as well as her previous nickname (‘The Monster’) after she became my badminton partner. We did pretty well in the early season as well, which was probably why I never saw her unbridled apoplexy until the finals when we lost in a close game against her former tennis rival.
All I can say is that I have now seen attacks against sports netting that I never want to see again, and now I have to find myself a sport even calmer and less threatening that badminton. But WHAT? I don’t think there is one! Though I could just pick one that doesn’t have a net and hope that ‘The Monster’ doesn’t follow me…
-Garth