Further Evidence That Not Liking Sports Makes You a Social Outcast

I really wish I could get into sports--watching them, playing them, not wanting to scream out of sheer frustration whenever polite conversation turns to them. I don't know if its a case of nature or nurture. Growing up, my mother (who comes from a family of artists) always encouraged my creative instincts. I drew, I took pictures, I played instruments, I wrote. I remember never feeling 100% comfortable with physical activities. Having been born in November, and thus being younger than a lot of my peers, and naturally being small, I always had the feeling of having less developed motor skills than everyone else. Gym class was always an anxious experience. The sheer pressure of having to perform and lacking confidence in my abilities made it a total nightmare, and it probably caused me to be worse at sports than I actually was. I discovered dance, which I liked well enough and spent much of my youth in jazz, tap, and ballet classes until I eventually quit when I discovered that pointe is just as painful as it looks and requires too huge a time commitment than I was willing to endure.

As vanity has compelled me to work out as an adult, I have been amazed by my body's immediate response to physical activity--the way in which I can quickly gain muscle tone quickly and my unnaturally large female biceps. A few years ago I had a boyfriend who was convinced I'd be a great swimmer--something about my shoulders and back, but water freaks me out so that's a no go. Recently I have begun to wonder if perhaps I have some natural athletic predispositions after all, but my long sorted history of having zero confidence in the heat of the game continues to hold me back. That, and I think I'm a little lazy.

Likewise, I have never had an urge to watch sports on television. I can't relate to people who are entertained by watching people run around inside a glowing little box, their activity interrupted once every few minutes for beer or automobile advertisements. But now that I am a grownup, I really wish that somebody had taken me aside as a youngster and explained to me the social significance of sports. I wish somebody had told me that not caring about or liking sports automatically excludes you from bonding experiences with your peers and marginalizes you during routine conversation. Case in point, today all of my peers at work are downtown at a pub watching the US play whoever in the World Cup. I was not invited, I presume because all at-work conversation about soccer has caused me to roll my eyes and reach for a crossword puzzle. Still, I can't help but feel left out. It's a lonely feeling when everyone else is dedicated to something that means absolutely nothing to you at all.