and... what if it was your passion?
By: Laura Cristancho 10°C
I believe most of us Pachas have participated in at least one extracurricular activity at school, whether it was a sport, an artistic area, or learning to cook and to do experiments. Even if it was just the half of a school year, or your whole academic life, there had to be an activity that caught your eye and made you want to be part of it. For some, that activity grew out to be their passion. For others, it just ended as other activity on the list of what they’ve tried. As for always, the school has had preferences for sports, but not for every sport. And, specifically, there has been this one sport that has had little to no recognition at all: soccer.
Some of you may be wondering: why soccer? Nowadays few girls play soccer, right? At least at school, nobody does! Well, that’s where you are wrong. First of all, I want you to ask yourselves if you knew that there was a soccer team. Of course, if your friends were members then you’d obviously know there was a crew but if you did not have friends who were involved in it, did you know?
You are always listening about Cheers and “Barras” presentations and achievements as well as volleyball and basketball’s matches and tournaments, but did you ever hear about the white and black ball one? There was a team that attended small tournaments but it was never a topic to talk about. Now, imagine you are really devoted to something (playing a sport or an instrument, acting, cooking, drawing, etc.) and you start to pursue that dream, that passion you have, and you don’t really care if you are recognized at all as long as you are able to do it. Suddenly, due to that lack of recognition, you are unable to keep up with what you wanted to do. How would you feel? Certainly, I would be devastated. If you love what you do, you don’t need the feeling of acknowledgment. Just doing *that* specific thing gives you the satisfaction enough to be joyful.
Ever since it started, the detail that few girls were interested was always a major inconvenience. Some causes of this lack of attentiveness were the fact that school never promoted the band and thus, the fact that not all members committed completely due to the absence of appreciation towards them. Two of my closest friends, Ana Padilla and Gabriela Balaguera, were part of the team until the very last minute. That exact last minute was when the teens of the 2018th PROM graduated. Ever since then, things started to go downhill. The girls that were left started to feel less enthusiastic about the squad and, as a result, it faded out. Not only was it the element of some members leaving but then again, it was also the feeling of lack of support towards the team.
“The thing that most angers us is how the school pays more attention to some sports and forgets about the others,” stated former players. “We played almost non-existent tournaments because, first, we didn’t have enough girls and second, the ones that we had didn’t show up to the matches. And we always lost, but it didn’t matter because we did what we loved.” Just when you realize that losing a match cannot beat the pleasure of just doing it because you like it; it is when you realize that that precise activity is your passion. “What hurt the most was how when the school’s achievements were announced in the meetings at the Coliseum, it was mentioned Cheers going to “Mundiales”, basketball matches, volleyball trips, but they never talked about the soccer team.” Wouldn’t it be sad if you did something with so much enthusiasm and nothing came out of it? “We were really sad when we lost the squad because it was due to lack of interest. We wanted to keep on with it, even if it was a heavy duty, but you cannot make a team out of five girls. It’s impossible.”
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This is not the first time that a sport loses its place at school. It happened with the athletics group, the tennis almost-group (which never was a real team because few girls joined it), and now with the football one. Next time, it can be your squad, and I doubt you’d like that. Pachas should stand together, right? So why don’t we start to support all our clubs more? Support is not the center of life, but it unquestionably warms hearts and shows interest.