Late Night Volleyball

So I'm just going to come out and say it... I'm a Mormon. Since I'm a Mormon, and single, and between the ages of 18 and 30, I attend a specific ward for people that fall into that category, like me... Okay, enough of the ellipses. I go to a Single's ward, where most young adults are sent to attain their marriage license. We do a lot of activities, usually two-three per week. One of those activities is every Monday night. We all go to our church building and have an activity that was usually planned about 5 minutes beforehand. Afterwards, some of us stay and play either volleyball or basketball. I always play volleyball.

I used to live in California, and in my ward there, volleyball after Family Home Evening (our Monday night activity) was a regular and sometimes "mandatory" occurrence. Every week we would end up playing until at least midnight, sometimes one in the morning. At the time, I had a full time job, so I would often have to be up early the next morning. But nonetheless, I still went to volleyball. You wanna know why? Because it was fun. Simple as that. It didn't matter who was there (usually the same every week), we were usually tired enough to let our inhibitions down and just loosen up and have a good time.

Now I live in my "hometown" (this can mean something different for everybody, for me, it just means wherever my parents are living at the time. I have had so many "hometowns" that I really don't know what to say when people ask where I'm from.) of Denton, Texas. The singles ward here used to be super lame and cliquey. But over the past summer, there was a sudden turnover in the population of the ward. That doesn't happen very often around here. This time, it was a very good thing that this happened, because it made the entire ward look around and realize "who are all these people?" This, in turn, made everyone feel like "the new kid." And for a singles ward, it's a good thing to be "the new kid." Everyone wants to know who you are, they want to know why you're there, what you're doing with your life, are you single, do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend from out of town, what do you like to do, where are you going to school, whats your favorite color, social security number, credit card numbers, etc. They just want to know EVERYTHING. That is, until the learn something about you that they don't like, and then you may never talk to that person ever again.

Anyways, I digress. The singles ward here almost never played volleyball after FHE (Family Home Evening, our Monday night activity). Most of them went home, some (mostly guys looking to get sweaty) would play basketball. Recently though, I made a change. I bought myself an indoor volleyball and started keeping it in my car. Since then, we have started to play volleyball at least twice a week. Every time we play it gets later and later before we decide to go home. There's just something about volleyball that makes everyone feel equal. Most of us suck, so we don't feel bad that everyone else sucks too. There are a handful that are pretty good, and with some practice, I might be able to join their ranks someday soon.

What I enjoy most about playing volleyball late at night is that everyone is on the same level. Whether that level be skill or tiredness, or a lack of skill because of tiredness. We all just let loose and let our guard down and just laugh. We enjoy each others company, we laugh at each others mistakes and oddities and lack of skill, we yell at each other, we scream about our own stupidity, the crazy side comes out of some, the quiet side comes out of others, and we all just relax. Volleyball is a stress relief. You get to hit a ball as hard as you want and nobody yells at you for hitting the ceiling because it's hilarious. You can hit someone in the face with a ball and they don't scream at you because they are laughing to hard to care. You can completely miss the ball and nobody cares because it's too funny.

Late night volleyball. It's a little thing that may seem ridiculous to some, and awesome to others. But for me, it's one of the little things that keeps me happy.