For The Love Of It.

Our high school was lucky enough to have a pretty strong volleyball team for several years.  Honestly, it's probably the one reason I was totally excited to go to school.  I loved volleyball, everything about it.  The warm ups, the practices, the games and tournaments.  I lived and breathed volleyball.

I have a vivid memory of one of the tryouts for the senior girls team.  There was a girl who tried out every year.  Unfortunately, she never made the team, but that didn't stop her.  She kept coming back year after year.  During one of the tryouts, she went to pass the ball and somehow it flew up to the ceiling and hit one of the lights, shattering it to pieces and bringing the tryout to a halt.  At the time, it wasn't more than a simple equation.  This girl was trying out and it wasn't looking so good for her, which was unfortunate.

Now, years later...with high school far behind me I revisit this tryout and see it in a completely different light.  This fellow student had so much courage, heart, determination and absolute love for the sport.  This drove her to pursue her passion by trying out every year, because you never know, this year may just be the year.  She didn't worry about being judged.  It was really quite simple, she loved the sport, so she tried out.

She loved something so much, that despite not being the strongest player, she continued to play...

for the love of it. 

plain and simple.

This brings me to painting. Yes, volleyball and painting, not at all a random! ha!

When I thought of the idea of making a gallery wall above the couch in the living room I brainstormed what I would put in the frames.  One of the ideas was to attempt a few paintings myself.  My first attempt at painting was a complete fail.  Complete fail.  But since these ones would be of a much smaller scale, maybe I'd be able to do a better job?  I gave it a try.  After testing out a few different designs I realized that I most enjoyed painting random circles and I was really happy with how they looked.  So that will be what we frame.

That brought me to thinking of doing something similar on the large canvas I bought and that had been tucked away in a dark corner of the basement in hopes that no one would ever find it!  I knew I liked to paint but truth be told, I'm far from being a painter.  But perhaps the first attempt was a complete fail because I was just going about it wrong, not doing what came naturally to me (painting in a circular motion).

I'm pretty stoked about how the large canvas turned out and I'm glad that I gave it another try.  It's no masterpiece, but it was just so much fun to do!  I really enjoyed myself and the time I spent making it.

This brings me back to the volleyball story.  Just because you aren't as strong as others at something, doesn't mean you shouldn't be doing it or that you're not good at it.  If you love to do something and it makes you happy, then go do it!  If you want to try something, then go try it!  Don't worry about what others may think, just think about how it makes you feel.  Simply do it for the love of it.

Cheers,