Putting it all in Perspective

I know nobody knows this, but the past week I have been in the hospital mostly with my girlfriend and her family while their father is recovering from emergency surgery. It looks like he has a real strong chance to pull through according to the doctors, just may take a little time. Anyways, I wrote this after the UNI game on saturday and I know its a little "deeper" and whatnot than most of the stuff on here (especially from me) but I thought I'd share it anyways. Hope it may help us all with that loss a little.

Putting it All in Perspective: 

Spending five years in Lawrence as a Kansas student will shape you. You will develop “KU Calves” from walking up what are possibly the only hills in the state, learn to deal with the homeless rummaging through your trash at four in the morning and develop a love for KU basketball. The tradition, the aurora, and lets face it – the success of the program is infectious. You can’t help it.  I couldn’t help it. Before I knew it, I was at every home game and a few road ones, hangovers or homework be damned. I broke a lamp when KU lost to Bucknell. Broke my bed frame and drove aimlessly around Clinton Lake after the Bradley game. I cried tears of joy on Mass Street after the team won it all my senior year.

After college I stayed in Lawrence a while, beefing up my resume with internships, golfing, drinking with friends and drinking while golfing with friends. Eventually I moved to Overland Park and got a job. I never lost my love for the Hawks. With the dominant season they had in 2010, I expected another shot at a title.

            Last Sunday night, my girlfriend Julie received a call from her mom that her father, John, was in rough shape. Julie and I have been dating for two and a half years. We had just taken a drive to look at houses to possibly move into around Overland Park and will be engaged soon, pending a “yes” to my future proposal (fingers crossed). Julie rushed home to see if she could provide some help being a nurse and discovered the worst. John had gone into septic shock and had to be rushed into emergency surgery. For the next week he laid in a hospital bed hooked up to ventilator, fighting for his life. It would cast a dark cloud over the Christmas for sports fans, March Madness.

            After watching KU grind its way through an unimpressive victory over 16th seeded LeHigh in a hospital waiting room, I decided to watch the second round game over Northern Iowa home at my apartment. I needed to get some chores done that had been neglected after spending time at the hospital with Julie all week and the patients on the floor likely got little to no rest during the LeHigh game due to my tendency to yell and massively over-react to games. I went home, threw my clothes in the wash and turned on the game alone in my dark apartment while snow pounded the ground outside on a typically unpredictable spring day in Kansas.

            As the game unfolded I yelled. I pleaded. I prayed. I paced. I changed into three different shirts to bring better luck. I threw an empty Pepsi bottle at the walls. Nothing helped. I watched my team’s dream season go down in flames. I changed out of my now cursed KU t-shirt, threw on my coat, and drove back through the slush towards to hospital. I needed to vent and tell someone, anyone, how terrible I felt.

            After pulling in and walking up the stairs to the waiting room, I stopped and saw Julie’s family through the glass windows in the wall. They just sat and waited, blank stares on their faces. They didn’t know if their dad would make it. Suddenly the KU game didn’t matter any more. No game mattered. I would have traded every glorious win, conference title, the beloved national title just to see their dad get better. Julie asked me how I was doing and if I would be ok. I could only chuckle to myself and think that if anyone should be asking that question, I should be asking her.

            For two hours, the game gave me a distraction from the cruelty of the world around me. I had the luxury of watching my team play and not have to worry about anything else. We may have lost, but there will always be another game. Another season. Another tournament. We can’t lose sight on what really matters.

            “Are you ok?” Julie asked me again.

   "Yeah. I'm fine." I replied. "How are you?"