Throwback Thursday Stories: Mean, Green, Soccer-Playing Machine

Today we are participating in The Mom Creative's Throwback Thursday Stories! Every Thursday she posts a throwback picture and tells the story behind it, and then has a link-up at the bottom of the post for others to share their stories too! If you enjoy today's post and would like to see more, feel free to click over to her post and check out more stories by clicking here. If you are a new reader from The Mom Creative, welcome! Feel free to click around, we are glad you're here.   :)


My older brother was an awesome soccer player. He wound up getting a scholarship because of his athletic ability, so naturally, when I was a little girl my parents enrolled me in the local recreation department's soccer program. My nephew and little brother were both enrolled in the same team as me, so we had tons of fun doing soccer-things together.....like daring each other to eat grass and throwing dirt at each other (the grass tasted weird, if you were wondering.)

I am relatively certain that for the first two seasons I did nothing but dance in circles, pick flowers and sing throughout every practice and game. I seem to remember my Dad lovingly shouting across the field: "Sarah, put down the flower and kick the ball." I am almost positive that I did not listen to him. Because flowers.

Due to my amazing soccer/dancing abilities, my parents also enrolled me in ballet.....where I pretended to crawl on the floor like a lion anytime they played a Lion King song. *ahem*

Eventually I did get serious about playing soccer though. Maybe a little too serious.

 

I want you all to know that my mom has both of these pictures on her fridge. It never fails, anytime we have a large gathering at her house someone has to bring up my face in this picture.

 

Listen guys, the photographer told me to look like a mean, green, soccer-playing machine. So I was a good little girl and did exactly what he told me. I'm good at following orders!  ;)  That phrase also caught on really well too, so I repeated probably a million times that I was a mean, green, soccer-playing machine over the rest of the season.

 

But in all seriousness, my childhood soccer teams hold some of my best memories. It was so awesome to play on a team with both my nephew and my little brother. My Dad and older brother even volunteered as coaches one year, which was awesome. As I grew up and continued playing I discovered my love of running, which led me to my extensive running career throughout middle school and high school. So Dad, I suppose all the money you paid so I could dance and pick flowers on the soccer field was worth it!  ;)

 

And for the record, I still consider myself a mean, green, soccer-playing machine. I just don't wear the pigtails anymore.  :)  

 

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” ~1 Peter 2:2-3

 

 

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