Cornhole (089)

Sports just aren’t my thing. As a young kid, I was a goalie in soccer. That’s the least team oriented position you can have, and it was perfect for me. Until I stopped playing and started dancing instead. While dancing with a group involves getting everyone in sync with each other, it’s really an individual activity because you’re just trying to stay on beat and hoping everyone else is too. 

In fourth and fifth grades, I bowled on a league with one partner, and we took first place at the end of the second year. Then, I never really participated in other sports, aside from the occasional kickball game. There were some ultimate frisbee games in high school. After high school, I played a lot of disc golf. I would go with large groups and we would play on teams as a scrimmage if it was a busy day and there were more than six of us, which there usually was. It was really an excuse to wander the woods and get super stoned, but I did get pretty good at it.

Mike plays whatever he can. If someone needs an extra for softball, volleyball, hockey, cornhole, kickball, bowling, horseshoes, call Mike and he will play. I have played cornhole with him many times, and we were on leagues in horseshoes and bowling together. We have played softball a couple times together also. I’m just terrible at most sports and I can’t help but feel ashamed when I suck so much because I feel like I’m letting people down. It’s hard for me to get out of my head and just have fun. 

Tonight, we were playing cornhole with people who are involved in a national league, but it was all just for fun. And money; fun and money. And they had a few prizes to give away to random people who played, which was a nice bonus. There were 14 of us, and we did not have set partners. Each game, we received a text message telling us who our partner was, who we were playing against, and on which set of boards. I’m not great at cornhole. I hardly got any bags in the hole or on the board compared to the rest of the people there. 

There was something about having to let down 7 other people who were stuck with me as a partner that allowed me to get out of my head a bit more than when I play with the same partner for every game. I ended up only winning two games, one of them against Mike, and I helped us come back one point at a time to take the win 21-20! I was consistently getting better as the night went on, and I tried a spinning technique with the bags that started to help my shots. I finished in last place, but it didn’t bother me. It was nice to hear that the guys running the show—the really good players—enjoyed having me out there and seeing me have fun. And I did, it was fun. Even the games I was skunked in. 

After cornhole was all wrapped up, I grabbed darts from their board to at least remind myself I’m good at some sports. It was a real dart board with metal tips. I got a bullseye with my first dart thrown. The rest weren’t too shabby either.