Strike! Bowling + Life Parallels: Episode 9
When Mary Ann first embarked on the path to becoming a “respectable” bowler, she dove in with enthusiasm and fortitude. Nothing, and no one would stand in her way. What she did not expect was the complexity of planning, thought and strategy that were part of this sport she previously gave little or no thought to, and if she had, surely would have viewed it as mindless but fun. Also, taking her by surprise were the generosity of the people she met, and the life lessons she learned along the way. Join Mary Ann on her meaningful, and at times extremely funny journey.
Episode 9: The Finance Department Hits Pay Dirt.
My sights had been set on winning the highest-scoring woman’s trophy before too long. My longer range goal? Breaking 200. Both seemed like pipe dreams, but I was determined to make them come true, eventually.
For the more short-term goal, around about this time I found out our company would be involved in a merger and would not survive as the independent entity we knew. It was a sad time for us who enjoyed working at the bank, but at the same time we knew business was business and, especially in the banking industry, there is no such thing as job security. Well, my track record would remain intact, for every bank I worked for, I was always on the wrong side of the merger, that being the lose-your-job-because-your-bank-was-sold side. Going through those things you learn a lot also, but right then I wondered about my new bowling career and how quickly our competitions would soon be no more.
Time to make hay while the sun shined! Practice, practice, practice, practice, and more practice. Rob started thinking maybe I just could achieve the highest woman’s score one of these days. Well, as luck would have it, the day of our next competition brought us some welcome news. The IT guy who bowls in the high 200s, and whose team generally cleans up when it comes to the trophies, couldn’t make the competition. One of my coworkers felt it in her bones that we stood a chance to do well that night with the best bowler out. My teammate K-Man and I dreamed right along with her. We were feeling good and anything seemed possible that day.
When we got to the alley and the competition began, we were all feeling confident. Maybe this would be our night. Johnny was real good that night, so was K-Man and I was holding my own. (Just a quick note-- we didn't call them these names at work. These names are specifically developed for story-telling.) It looked like I might just score my highest yet in competition. It all happened so fast it seemed. Pin after pin was going down, we were all making great rolls. Our team score was really climbing, we were locked in. We started thinking we did have a chance to win something, at least.
Competition ends, the dust settles, we take home three pieces of hardware! Highest team score and that was one huge trophy, almost as tall as I am (well, I guess that’s not so huge.). Johnny wins highest-scoring man. And the other trophy? It was mine. Highest-scoring woman at 140--WOW!!
