Tonight I went to the first intramural indoor soccer game of the semester. And my first intramural anything game. Ever. And the first time I can recall that I've been inside a huge air-supported, heated dome. We played in a virtual bubble. Maybe a real bubble, at that.
Originally, I'd signed up for the recreational level of play, thinking that five years of not-playing is long enough that I might look a tad foolish out there. However, it looks as though we got dumped into the intermediate level, probably because there weren't enough women who signed up to play indoor soccer (the men have four teams).
The important part is that I played soccer for the first time in five years. I discovered it's kind of like riding a bike. Before I realized it, I was calling "man on" and "time" and all those other phrases used in soccer (or am I out of date? I don't know...), and remembering not to reach (that one took a few mistakes to re-learn, in fact). I also found out how out of shape I really am, when I got all out of breath after a few minutes' play. It's kind of comforting, and gratifying, to realize that I haven't lost all skill, just familiarity.
As I started playing, all my memories of five years ago and the last time I'd played five-on-five on fake turf suddenly crowded up to the front of my mind, and the time faded away like I'd just played last week. For a moment or three, I really felt like I was back in undergrad, playing on one of the three outdoor mini-fields on Tuesday evenings, which were our "optional" practices (in fact, I rarely went). Wearing layers against the cold, running across other playing fields to get the out-of-bounds balls, smelling of turf and wind and sweat, walking back through the gym and climbing in my window so I wouldn't have to walk all the way 'round to the front door. It felt odd, though that's a bit of an understatement.
Now if only I could attach muscle memory to the remaining Italian in my brain, maybe I could re-learn that just as quickly...
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