Saturday, July 11, 2015

July 11: Writing Prompt #192-Fandom

Are you a sports fan? Tell us about fandom. If you’re not, tell us why not.
I enjoy going to sporting events in person, but as far as getting involved in watching every game for a team on TV or participating in fantasy leagues, etc…I do not have any interest because I usually get bored watching sports on TV or my mind starts to drift to all the other things I have to do, and I get up to take care of these chores.  I do have teams that I like to follow in hockey (The Canucks) and now football (I live in Seattle, you can’t help but follow the Seahawks during football season here), but other than that, I’m definitely not a fanatical fan of any sport or team. On my bucket list is to attend at least one game of every professional sport and so far, I’ve done that with hockey, baseball, and soccer (Canucks, Mariners, and Sounders) , in part thanks to my move to WA.  Now, I just need to make it to a Seahawks game and a pro basketball game, and I’ll have the most popular sports covered. Being from the south, I should have already been to professional car racing, but I haven’t. Tennis, golf, and cycling would be cool to see too, but I’m not sure I could stomach boxing or MMA. That said, if the opportunity to attend such an event turned up, I wouldn’t pass on it.
It’s good to branch out and do things you normally wouldn’t try. Like when I lived in Spain for a summer and attended a bull fight in Madrid with the rest of my college classmates. In Spain, Matadors are in many ways, the equivalent of professional sports stars here in the U.S. I never would have thought this could be an enjoyable activity for me, but I liked it so much that I chose to go on my own to another bull fight later in the summer when I moved down to the south of Spain for my final month there. Afterwards, I found myself eating bull with my Spanish family. They had purchased the meat from the bull that died at the arena after the fight and after serving dinner and watching me eat it,  asked if I knew what I was eating.  I did not, but continued to feel very privileged to have a chance to participate in their culture and traditions in this way.  Some argue against bull fighting because the bull is killed in what some consider a not so humane manner (I won’t go into that further in this entry), but seeing it from another perspective, nothing goes to waste in this culture, right down to the meat of the bull. 

In the end, I don’t consider myself a big sports fan, but I do relish the opportunity to be a part of the fandom culture of attending games and events surrounding the world of sports. 

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