I'm ok with "un-girly"

(I wasn't sure how to spell "girly" so this is the spelling I went with. Feel free to critique)

All my life I’ve erred more on the sporty side. I can’t remember any facts or players names. I don’t know every rule for football and I can’t name one soccer position, but I enjoy sports. I grew up in a fairly sporty family and went to a college with a big sports program. I even majored in Sport Management. But, somewhere along the way, or maybe just in the last few years, I’ve felt like it’s not “ladylike” to go out and get sweaty and dirty. That playing sports, especially co-ed team sports, makes you “one of the guys.” I honestly have no idea where I got that from. Not my family, not friends that I can remember. Maybe, since this has developed in the last few years, it came from the dainty, Dallas scene; where a girl is more likely to get a pedicure than kick a soccer ball (BIG generalization there, I know, but work with me).

This afternoon we got a bit of a rain storm and our soccer field was muddy, but there were a few teachers playing soccer against some older students after school. I walked by and was invited to join. In my head that fear of “being one of the guys” and not being able to participate in something so “un-girly” cropped up. There was another girl out there on the teacher team and I thought, why not, it’s Haiti right? So, I took off my shoes and ran out to play. Now, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve played soccer (outside of a kid-team when I was little). I’m not very good at all, but I can run around the field faking like I know what I’m doing.

This was absolutely one of the most fun things I’ve done here. Teachers versus students is always fun. I had 3 or 4 of my students playing and I love that they get to see a side of you they don’t see in the classroom.  I had mud from head to toe….literally. I headed the ball, which was not a wise idea when it is caked in mud. We ran, we slipped, we fell, we laughed, it was amazing. I love building relationships with these kids and with the other teachers as well, and if you can bring some mud into it too, the better!

Maybe this whole “un-girly” thing is more in my head than I think, because in the last year I’ve picked up rock climbing, gone on a 4-day hike up a mountain, and moved to a third-world country, all kind of “un-girly” things. But, what it really comes down to is this: I like these things. I like running as fast I can through the mud to kick a soccer ball. I like throwing a football. I like getting messy sometimes. So, from now on, I’m just going to kick off my shoes and get a little muddy…

…and then give myself a mini-pedicure when I get home. Which I totally did today J