I played lacrosse in high school. Let me start off by saying that I was not good. There were no false hopes of playing in college or beyond. I was back-up in case someone got injured, and a practice body so our starters had someone to go up against.
There are lessons I took away from playing though, important things that I still think shape who I am and how I go through life:
Punctuality is everything
When I played, one rule our coach had was that for every minute that anyone was late to practice, the entire team ran one lap after practice. So for example, if player A is 3 minutes late, and player B is 7 minutes late, we’re all running 10 laps after practice.
Now, I’m not gonna lie, at the beginning this sucked so bad, but we got in line really quick. Our coach wanted us to govern ourselves, and no better way to do that than to punish everyone. But he also wanted us to respect each other’s time. We can’t start drills until everyone is warmed up, and if someone’s late, that means we have less time to get better.
I’ve really felt that last point – respecting other peoples’ time. We like to joke that we run on Indian Standard Time, and I really hate that. As an adult, I’m everywhere I need to be five minutes early, and I expect other people to at least be on time. It’s literally the first impression you give to anyone in any situation, and really shows how much you respect them. I want other people to know that I want to be here, I’m committed to what we’re doing, and I really don’t want to run laps.
Winning feels good, but it isn’t more important than competing
Like I said up top, I was terrible at lacrosse, so every time I won something or got to do something it was memorable. Win a drill – massive. Get in the game – huge. Score? We’re throwing a party.
I used to really get hung up on winning things, but what’s way more important is being competitive. Honestly, not even competing but just trying your best. Wanting to win, and doing the best you can to get there. I sometimes still get hung up on the result and failure of something, and I forget to look back and see how much progress I made just by trying.
Now I’m at the point where I get way too competitive in any little thing, and I have to remind myself to turn it off.
“We win as a team, we lose as a team”
Our coach used to say this all the time and it really annoyed the crap outta me as a player. I didn’t make the mistake that made us lose. I wasn’t even in the game!
But now I look at it as the life lesson that it should have been. We all need people to get through life. We all need a team. No one gets through this life alone. Celebrate your wins as a team, mourn the losses as a team. Gas your team up when it’s needed, and humble them when that’s needed too. We all need support, but we can’t just be takers, we need to remember to give it as well.
I think that high school extracurriculars are so important. They look great on a college application, but they also teach you so many other things that classes don’t: how to show up, how to deal with other people, how to lead, when to follow. Adaptation, communication, teamwork, and so much more.
For me, I took away lessons about the value of people, a respect for time, and doing the best I can in any given circumstance.