Dodgeball!

The 5 rules of dodgeball are: Dodge, dip, dive, duck, and......dodge. I LOVE Dodgeball. Don't know how I lived 23 years of my life without it.

Dodgeball is perfectly exhilarating: it's a healthy mix of throwing, catching, team play, and all-out madness. With 7 balls flying around and in motion almost at all times, there's a lot of havoc, and a lot of people trying to hit each other with balls thrown at high velocities. In the games I've been playing, no one ever dogs it, people are playing hard, and they're aiming to HIT YOU. Hard. I think what draws me to the sport, though, is the perfect blend of high physical activity, necessity of throwing accuracy, need to react quickly, split-second decisions, and surprising amount of teamplay, and COMPETITION. Have I mentioned that I am an extremely competitive person? Law school has beaten a lot of the competition out of me because it's a game that I've found I can't really win, but put a ball or paddle or some sports-related activity in my hand, and I'm ready to give it my all, all the time. Same thing with games. Chess, cards, any kind of game that involves strategy, I strive to figure out the key to the game and work it to my advantage. (Kind of why I like Big Brother, the Mole, etc.)

Dodgeball, though, is a it of a different animal. Dodgeball requires timing, skill, natural ability, and patience. So many moving parts: the other team comes forward, you retreat; you have all the balls, you go up and hit somebody. The best time to throw at someone is when they're throwing themselves; catching is much more important in the beginning of the game than at the end of the game.

Gotta say, when I go on a rampage and catch multiple balls + hit multiple people in the same game, that's one of the most natural highs I've had in my life. I hope to replicate that feeling many times over the course of this regular season.

The topic of dodgeball leads me to a topic that I remind myself of all the time: being thankful for what I have. Two relatively mundane situations I encountered today made me think aout how lucky I really am:

First, I met a young lady today who seemed normal......she has a bright future ahead of her, talks very articulately, is in a great leadership position, and seems very much like your highly successful young American, which she is. And then I noticed that her right hand only had two fingers. (If you are the young lady I'm referring to, if you have an issue with this post, please contact me directly). I think most people, because we're human, just take for granted what we have, especially body parts: sight, sound, smell, touch. I don't wake up everyday and pat my nose on the back for lasting it through another day of detecting smells. But meeting the young lady today really gave me new appreciation for how lucky I am to have all ten of my fingers, to have full function of my hands, to be able to play basketball, to play dodgeball, to take out the garbage easily, to clutch a baseball. And I'm not saying that the young lady can't do those things; it's just, I imagine, a lot harder to do that without the extra fingers that most other people possess. Sure, she can still a lot of the same things I can, and in many ways I think she's probably smarter than I am, more diligent, and better in many respects, but she won't have the ability to use ten fingers. It makes me painfully aware that we are all human and we can lose things, and usually we don't appreciate something until we lose it. Here's to many more dodgeball games for me, and more awareness for those who have lost something in their lives, whether physically or emotionally. I hope the young lady thrives in her future endeavors despite her loss.

Second , one of my esteemed colleagues in law school informed me today that a student at Cornell University was found dead in his fraternity library this morning, with autopsy reports pending. The student was part of the class of 2013 (a sophomore) from Brooklyn, New York and doing fine at Cornell University. Obviously, a tragic story, very tough loss for his family for such a promising young kid, but it made me really think: this kid was what, probably 19 years old, with his whole world in front of him, going to an Ivy League University, living the American dream, fully healthy, pretty much invincible, full of life.........he definitely didn't wake up yesterday morning thinking that that was the last day he would be alive on this earth. And we don't really know the cause of death, but just assuming he was not to blame or was very little to blame.......why is he dead now while I'm alive........it's almost scary to think about. So much of our lives is not controlled by ourselves, it's controlled by mitigating factors.... who happens to be next to us, how fast cars are driving on the highway near you, the weather, how chain of events occur.........any of these things can have a direct effect on your life, and whether or not you live.......It makes you really cherish the life that you have, whoever you are.......and ESPECIALLY if you're like me, who's a healthy man in his 20-somethings living in AMERICA in one of the best cities in the world with some of the best weather in the world (although it's very bad today) with 2 parents with a steady household.........gotta count your blessings, man. Seriously.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan