“Years and years of practice…”
“This can’t be…”
I muttered those words under my breath as I analysed my
bowling scores over the past ten years. I thought after scoring my all-time
high of 237, I would have improved a whole lot compared to the first time I
bowled – a mere 62 pins.
Then I looked closely at my scores, and the times when I’ve
scored a strike. I realized, yes, I have improved, but not a lot. My average
score is nothing to shout about, and my strike count is still a tad bit above
chance. Consistency was nowhere to be found. If I were to make a graph out of
it, it would be something similar to the stock exchange’s.
And to think, to think that I actually thought I’ve
improved.
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I guess we often think we’re no longer that immature,
tactless, childish or stupid kid that we were once upon a time. But then we
start thinking back, that every year we think we aren’t that person we used to
be anymore, we realize we make the same mistakes over and over again. And we
question ourselves, “Why was I so stupid at that time? I should have known
better.” And the vicious cycle continues. Ultimately, we realize this – we’re
just a bit better than before. And there’s still so much to work on.
(The title is a play on the word strike, whereby in bowling it means a good thing; in baseball it means the opposite.)