They say I have an athletic stature (the large bones in particular), but I had seen sports nightmares as a kid. So, to really love sports beyond keeping fit and healthy is what I cannot imagine. This has left my extra passion for sports on TV and in electronic games.

Having older ones who did everything from football to gymnastics is one thing, but having one who had a serious fracture (a broken bone while playing football) will drive in those sports instincts. In other words, while in school, nothing could make me participate in competitive sports, the inter-house sports. The horrors of my brother’s fractured leg refused to go away.

My reluctance to participate in sports as a child did not stop kids persuading me to come and watch them during their inter-house sports. It was held in the Teslin Balogun stadium and it was grand. I watched on and realized how related to life sports is. One sport that caught my attention was the Sack Race. I was not very conversant with this funny sport before the event.

I watched as the kids took their position and each was given a sack to wear, getting both legs in the sack. I wondered how they were meant to run in that and the whistle sounded. Each kid tried to run with the sack, one was trying to run fast and was ahead of the others, then he tripped. The winner was one girl that had seemingly crawled along steadily. Once, she tripped and got up immediately after tripping and continued the race.

Life is a Sack Race: We all have our bag of problems

Life is like a sack race, we only feel we are the worst sufferers until we learn about what other people face.

In life, each one has his own bag of problems that tries to pull him down.

Don’t try to solve everything at once, go slow and steady and see the fun even in the taunt life throws. You can win.

#life is a sport

(culled from my EKOes journal, 2017)