329. Things I liked about 2016: Soccer Mornings

As you all probably know, 2016 kinda sucked in a lot of ways. I don’t want to go into all of the ways because that would really depress me. So, in order to fill out some of these blog posts I’m going to write about some of the things I actually liked about 2016. I believe in the importance of reflection, so I’m going to do that for the next couple of blog posts.

Soccer mornings were one of my most fruitful well of joy this past year. Yesterday was a good example of one of them. There was snow outside, I made a huge pot of coffee, and I watched soccer for a few hours. I watched the Tottenham vs. Manchester United game. Even though my team Tottenham lost, it was nice to have the world still for a little while. I enjoyed the coffee and took in the game. I texted a handful of friends that I always text in these games, that’s been great too.

I think I liked these days because of the time they were at and how unique they were. English Premier League soccer is popular, but it’s not as popular as American football. I think it’s just nice to have a time set aside to take in those games. I also kind of would rather drink coffee than have a beer during a sporting event. And breakfast during a sporting event is super underrated. It’s and you get to take it all in instead of nachos, or some other junk food.

I think there’s also a bit of tradition here that I like. I know that I’m going to be texting with a handful of people about these games. I know I’m going to be able to process them for the Men in Blazers podcast later in the week. I know that I’ll be watching highlights later. I have a process on how to deal with them and that makes it all the better to watch. While I watch other sports, I don’t get that sort of routine with them. One game sort of bleeds into another and I don’t make them time to digest everything that happened.

I also seem to schedule things during other times of sporting events. Most nights I’m either too busy or I don’t feel like watching a game, so I’ll do something else. These Saturday mornings are (sort of) untouchable in my mind. With football, you’re watching right in the middle of the best part of the day, but with soccer, most of the time you still have the day in front of you. It’s easier to process something when you know you have to be somewhere later.

There are very few specific Saturday mornings that stuck out in my mind, but in aggregate, they were great. It’s important to have that space that’s all about you. There were a few times where i politely declined invites to do something because it interfered with Saturday morning soccer time. If 2016 taught us anything, it’s that it’s important to have those times where you take care of yourself.