Slice of Life
Aug. 29th, 2003 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coalescentBack in the day (it must be almost ten years ago I started going, now), I was in the Young Bowler's Club at the local bowling alley. I started going because it counted as a sport for Duke of Edinburgh Award purposes. I kept going because I discovered that (a) I like bowling, and (b) I'm not terrible at it. I had - still have, although I've not bowled for a while - my own shoes and my own ball and everything.
The social dynamics were, in retrospect, odd. On the one hand, you had a bunch of kids who didn't want to be on the proper sports teams, and you had the fact that the thirty or so members of the club ranged in age from 6 to 18. And yet on the other hand, after a fashion there was still a sports team mentality. As you might expect, I was fairly low down the pecking order, although it didn't bother me much. I wouldn't say I was really friends with anyone who went, but for the most part we all got on well enough.
Various of the guys and gals inevitably got it on, and one of the couples around my age was Zoe and Ollie. I'd say I was mostly as friendly with them as I was with anyone else there. Ollie is my age, Zoe a couple of years younger, and sometime in my last year at the club - so she would have been around sixteen - she got pregnant. I know she kept the baby, but I didn't know much else. I largely lost touch with everyone from the club when I left, if nothing else because university took over.
The other day, I went to the newsagent because I needed some milk, and Ollie was working behind the counter. It took us a couple of seconds to recognise each other, and then we felt obliged to update each other on our lives. He's working as a management accountant; the newsagent job is just to bring in some extra money, because it turns out that he and Zoe not only stayed together, but recently bought a house together. In fact, they've had another child - and a third is on the way at the moment. It made me feel a little ashamed, because naturally I'd made sceptical assumptions (teen pregnancy, big mistake, irresponsible, blah blah) and here they are, five or six years later, proving me wrong. Sure, so money's a little tight, but - the pride and the love in his voice when he talked about his family were unmistakeable, and honestly, a pleasure to hear. It's nice to see that sometimes, things work out.
The social dynamics were, in retrospect, odd. On the one hand, you had a bunch of kids who didn't want to be on the proper sports teams, and you had the fact that the thirty or so members of the club ranged in age from 6 to 18. And yet on the other hand, after a fashion there was still a sports team mentality. As you might expect, I was fairly low down the pecking order, although it didn't bother me much. I wouldn't say I was really friends with anyone who went, but for the most part we all got on well enough.
Various of the guys and gals inevitably got it on, and one of the couples around my age was Zoe and Ollie. I'd say I was mostly as friendly with them as I was with anyone else there. Ollie is my age, Zoe a couple of years younger, and sometime in my last year at the club - so she would have been around sixteen - she got pregnant. I know she kept the baby, but I didn't know much else. I largely lost touch with everyone from the club when I left, if nothing else because university took over.
The other day, I went to the newsagent because I needed some milk, and Ollie was working behind the counter. It took us a couple of seconds to recognise each other, and then we felt obliged to update each other on our lives. He's working as a management accountant; the newsagent job is just to bring in some extra money, because it turns out that he and Zoe not only stayed together, but recently bought a house together. In fact, they've had another child - and a third is on the way at the moment. It made me feel a little ashamed, because naturally I'd made sceptical assumptions (teen pregnancy, big mistake, irresponsible, blah blah) and here they are, five or six years later, proving me wrong. Sure, so money's a little tight, but - the pride and the love in his voice when he talked about his family were unmistakeable, and honestly, a pleasure to hear. It's nice to see that sometimes, things work out.
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no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 04:14 am (UTC)happy news :oD
thanks for that. I'd just been reading news websites, and it was beginning to get me down.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 04:30 am (UTC)I watched The Big Lebowski again last night...
no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 06:38 am (UTC)Sometimes these "stereotypes" aren't applicable to everyone. And I'm glad they aren't.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 07:25 am (UTC)signed, i got my gym credit in college by bowling
Nothing better...
There still is good news in the world.