Truth 2 Essay, Research Paper

Vitality

What is vitality? The dictionary defines vitality as the capacity to live, grow, or develop. This, to me, seems a vague definition of a word with so much meaning.

Vitality, to me, means something that you spend most of your time doing or thinking of doing. Vitality is something that puts a fire inside of you, something that keeps you going and makes you want to get up and live life.

Take me, for example, I live for and devote much of my time to football. Some call this a simplistic game but, it is so much more to me than just a game. At a glance, one might think football to be an easy game to play. I mean, come on, how hard can it be to hit and tackle one person trying to carry a ball? However, as you look deeper into the game, you begin to see how complex and difficult football really is. First, you have your “keys”, the people on the opposing team who, through their actions, tell you where you should go. You have to read their movements and determine where you should go in only a split second and hopefully you read your key correctly and you get to make the tackle. If all goes well you get the satisfaction of a job well done and you move onto the next play.

The object, for the defensive unit, is to find a way to stop the opposing team from moving the ball ten yards. The offense has four chances to try to advance the ball this distance. If the defense accomplishes their goal, then the offensive unit takes the field. The object of the offense is to move the ball down the field and to score a touchdown.

This is the part that gets tricky! First, you have hundreds of plays that each team member must know in order for the team to function properly. Each play has a series of numbers and words that hint at what is going to happen, but you still have to know what you are doing or the team will not execute the play efficiently or successfully. Second, the receivers, backs, and quarterbacks have to be able to run, throw, block, and catch a football. Countless hours are spent during the week practicing drills which help us to complete the tasks, easier, faster, and more efficiently, all just to play a game on Friday night, with hundreds of fans watching your every move. This is what you have practiced for. My whole week has revolved around this one night. Just four little quarters, each containing ten minutes of game time.

Once the game has started, your anxiety disappears and adrenaline starts to flow through each and every vein in your body. The thrill of getting to go out onto a field to hit and tackle a total stranger, in front of hundreds of fans “ooooing” and “ahhhing” at every action, leaves you feeling all-powerful. It’s like no other feeling in the world!

The sound of the crowd, the Friday night lights, the hitting and tackling, the sounds of face masks slamming together, the shrill of the referee’s whistle, all let you know that you belong here and you are a member of a football team.

People say football is just a game. Maybe, to some that’s all it is, but not for me. For me, it’s a way of life. It is what lights my fire, what keeps me going, what makes me want to get up in the mornings. To me, that is the true definition of vitality.