There are people who always lose their car keys and glasses, but then find them again after much frustration. I have never lost my glasses, simply because I have never had any as they haven’t invented any that can help blind people. When I still had some sight I never lost my car keys, because I used to put them always in the same place.
Unfortunately I sometimes lost my sight, and somehow found it again, or so it seemed.
It all started a long time ago, when I lived in South Africa. I was about fifteen years old and liked to play team games, like tennis, rugby and basketball.
One sunny day while playing tennis, I realized that the ball suddenly disappeared out of my view only to reappear a few seconds later, and so the game went on until I received the ball flat in my face. After that I gave up playing tennis.
I liked team games so much that I decided to try rugby, the South African national sport. I was never a great player like my friend Bugs who played for the first team of his school. Nevertheless I tried and mostly played for the school’s second teams.
Rugby scrum – photo by KSI Photography
When I started to play rugby I was convinced that I would be able to see the bigger dark brown ball. I also believed that the contrast with the light green grass would make it more visible. Furthermore as I played in the scrum (mass of all the burly big forwards with ball on ground in the middle) there was less chance to have to catch the ball. In the loose scrum you dug for the ball and didn’t really have to see it.
For a little while everything went well and I enjoyed playing rugby with my friends. The problem came up when I once had to catch the ball as it was coming down from the sky like a falling star. I ran forward and when I thought I was under the ball I tensed my muscles foreseeing the impact of the ball in my arms. It never happened and I soon realized that even the big rugby ball got lost in the sky, or at least out of my view. I got all my courage together and decided to speak to the coach. My rugby mates understood the problem and it was decided that I should only play the ground balls and leave the high sky balls to the others. This agreement allowed me to go on playing rugby for many years, until I got a foot injury.
Canoeing – photo by mikkelz
Then I took up individual sports like swimming, canoeing and cycling where no one else depended on my performances. It was me that either won or lost, so I felt a lot better with my conscience.
These individual sports I maintained for a long time. Today I do what I can, which is physiotherapy and exercise cycling at home.
About Mauro
I got my inspiration for this website from the song called “Imagine”, and so I decided to go on this adventure. I have always wanted to put up something like this where my friends and I could express our memories and dreams for the future. Share them with us, because if many people dream the same dream it will certainly come true.
Well, I recall that although you had the sight problem, you were a fierce rugby player. With lots of courage you had to carry the ball until tackled by some muscular guys like Enzo, Italo or Peter. But you always got up again and played on. Remember those days we used to play next to my house and it was even more enjoyable when it was raining and muddy. Even Martie joined us at times when we were short of a guy on the teams. Awesome times!
I remember those days playing rugby on the lawn next to our house. Those were great days!