Summer is definitely here. Walking on Paseo de Roxas at 12 noon is like doing sit up routines in the sauna. Available rooms in the resorts all over the country are the ones farthest from the beach. Flights are booked from morning til night. Bikini clad mannequins are all over the malls. Women's skirts gets are getting shorter and shorter, to the joy of my male friends. :-)
I'm not complaining though. I love summer! I can smell the fun and adventure in the air. Everything seems to have so much energy and brightness. Every weekend is a time to go out of town to enjoy the sun and the sand.
When I was younger, summer was the time to get ready for volleyball games. Volleyball trainings from morning til night, summer leagues consume most of April and May. Since salary at that age is unheard of, volleyball games and summer leagues within the village were a perfect reason to go out of the house. No major expenses necessary except for team uniforms and money to buy fishballs and manggang hilaw with.
Summers then were also the perfect time to find a new crush. Someone who gives you the kilig and the inspiration to play volleyball like impressing him was the most important thing on earth. He's the guy who you watch playing in the summer league all the time. Someone who catches your attention and your gaze just follows them where ever they go. Oh... the beauty of young love and summer crush!
Those were the days when sitting in the middle of the basketball court the whole day and laughing with your friends is the perfect way to spend summer. Playing with the Tazies and cheering for the Marzupials!
Looking back, summer's then were very simple and yet they were all character builder for me. I learned so many things from my young summers. Through my volleyball trainings I learned discipline, perseverance, strength, courage and team work. All traits are relevant to my life now as an adult. Through the summer leagues I learned how to deal with different kinds of people, I learned that I cannot get everything I want, to respect authority. This is when I understood the saying, it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.
Now, with the lack of time to train and play volleyball, my summers have shifted from spending the whole day in the volleyball court to spending the weekdays in the office. Now that salary is ingraned in my consciousness, the weekends are not only spent spiking balls and watching men shoot hoops. Weekends are now spent out of town chilling on the beach or diving and exploring different parts of the country. Now, volleyball is not just the only sport on my mind, diving, wall climbing, windsurfing and white water rafting are now part of the list.
A lot has changed since I first hit the volleyball. A lot has been learned since I joined my first summer league. One thing never changes though, summer always brings the promise of something exciting, fun and a brand new learning and experience.
