I was talking to someone about eBay, about how all my purchases from there have been great. I pointed out that it's really great for sports equipment and the great deals I got.

So then I had to explain to this person there was a time in my life when I was a jock.

I was a *terrible* at most sports I tried as a kid. I had to keep trying because I came from a jock family and my sister was effortlessly excellent at all the sports so my parents were confused as to why I wasn't also a natural at sports too.

My parents didn't even ask me if I wanted to be in those rec leagues, they just signed me up. They saw I wasn't good at basketball, softball, etc., but they said I needed to become good at one of them to be able to get into college. So I kept trying.

They also said it was because I needed to get exercise, but how much exercise exactly did I get by standing out in right field or being on the bench?

So somehow I found out about ice hockey and for some reason I was pretty good as a goalie. Playing goalie in women's ice hockey is super niche, so maybe that's it worked out for me.

But yeah, that required equipment, expensive equipment, and eBay was great for deals!

I also did running for exercise when I was in high school. That didn't require much equipment except for a walkman, batteries for said walkman, and running shoes, which I needed to replace every couple of months, but running shoes are easy to buy in person.

I switched from (being terrible) at lacrosse on my HS team to being decent at long-distance running on my HS team. I did the 1600m and the 3200m. I wasn't that great, but the 3200m is so grueling (8 laps around the track while everyone watches), that I had little competition.

I grew up in Northern New Jersey, so literally every sport there is a competition due to the number of people in the cities and burbs there, so it was extremely weird for me to see my name in the sports section of Bergen Record when I placed at meets.

An ice rink I often played at was in Hackensack, NJ. Bergen Academy was in there too and they had a track, so a lot of my high school sports career was in Hackensack, a city so unsexy Fountains of Wayne made a song about it as a punchline.

So as time when on and I moved away to college and adult life, sports faded out. I did stick with ice hockey for a bit, especially when I lived in Colorado because it was popular there, but over time I stopped with the sports and replaced them with art and knitting.

But my point to this thread it that my jock life was simultaneously wonderful & terrible.
Why? Here's the thing about being a jock – people *instantly* like you. I was a nerdy kid having a hard time making friends my sister said "Huh? Just be yourself!" because it worked for her.