last saturday, i went to bien's place after work. it was the opening of the basketball league that we joined. we were scheduled to play first, and bien and i barely made it to xavier school for warm-ups. i hastily introduced myself to some teammates (it was my first time to meet them) and proceeded to shoot some baskets. a few minutes later, the shrill whistle of the referee brought us into attention.

game time.

i was part of the starting five, and i really got into it. i was running, hustling, boxing out. nevermind that my nicotine-supplemented lungs were threatening to burst, nevermind that my legs were starting to feel like jello. i gave it my all. we put up a good fight, but they made some key baskets while we made some errors. everything steadily went downhill from there. come halftime, the opposing team was up by 18 points. the faces of my teammates were unreadable as we walked towards the bench. john, our playing coach, decided to rest me at the start of the 3rd period. we came out, guns blazing, but they had answers to every rally we made. i was screaming myself hoarse, trying to egg my teammates on. at the end of the 3rd period, we were still down by 15.

then, a miracle happened.

2 of my teammates who came in at the half suddenly waxed hot, while bien and john choked the opposing team's guards with defense that would have made robert jaworski proud. i stayed in the sidelines, but i din't mind. i was pouring all my adrenalin and pent-up energy into shouting and cheering, making sure i feed my teammates on the floor crucial info (time remaining, penalties, etc.) we managed to tie the score, and we went to overtime. the hot streak continued, and we never looked back. final score: 65-58. we won! we managed to weather the storm, muster up enough courage to fight back, and win it all. now that is what you call heart, ladies and gentlemen. something our team apparently has a lot of. yeah!

i can't wait for the next game. =]

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by the way, happy birthday to my uncle robert. tanda mo na! hahahaha!