Strike! Bowling + Life Parallels: Episode 3
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 3: Keeping it "Fun"
"You bowled how many games last night?!" (Everyone at work the next day.)
"Fourteen." (Mary Ann.)
So, I know I have to address that nagging question--how did I do? Well, I had a lot of fun and my scores were a little better than on trophy night. Oh, and as mentioned last time, I met the ex-pro. Unfortunately, he apparently had enough of me pretty quick, as now in retrospect, I admit I went on and on about my bowling adventure, grinning from ear to ear no less.
That first night of bowling practice set the stage for all that was to come. It was a quantifiable thing, scores were scores, higher was better, I knew what I had to do and I knew how I was going to do it. I was going to bowl and bowl and bowl, tirelessly and in rapid fire fashion, because that was fun for me. And I was going to always try to remember that this was supposed to be fun. Fun, no matter what. Well it turned out I struggled with that premise more often than not as you will see. But in the end it always came back to that easy to say-hard to put in practice concept for my scores to be respectable at whatever point in my bowling journey I was at the time.
But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. For now, my scores were bad, no matter how you spin it, beginner or no, and I was having important tactical struggles deciding on what pound ball to use, and whether to change off to another weight like a golfer would change clubs or to use the same weight in all instances. This issue would dog me for many, many practice sessions as you will come to know. Thanks for taking this journey with me. We will probably both learn something. Till next time…
