Practice

_{Photo by Md Mahdi}

I always hear people say that practice makes perfect but I guess I never really took those words seriously, no wonder now that it's all happening to me, it's starting to look like a scene from the movies.

You see before covid happened, I was undoubtedly the best football player in my family. I was so good that people would literally tell my dad about how good I was whenever they were having conversations with him. I remember the countless times I had actually been given free money whenever I was outside with the boys playing football, just because the spectators were more than impressed with my skills.

So I had gone to school with those same talented legs and skills and as usual, I had dominated everyone at my hostel. It didn't take long for the guys there to recognize me as one of the best players in the hostel and whenever we went out to play, I was always amongst the first few players that were chosen to play first.

But then covid happened and everyone started social distancing, so there was no way for us to play football. Even after covid ended, I still refused to play football for the next two years. So whenever my friends called me to go play a game with them, I would always give them some flimsy excuse as to why I couldn't go and no one really said anything or tried to force me because they couldn't. Football wasn't a do or die affair, it was solely my choice to either play or not and I had chosen not to.

Fast forward to this year and for some reason I suddenly had this urge to want to play football, so I had followed the guys to the field and as usual, I was among the first few people that were selected to play, and that was when it happened.

That game was such a disaster for me that I had felt like a failure on my way home. But I had encouraged myself to give it another try, I mean three years away from the field surely would leave a mark on you, so I had tried again and again and again and all of them ended with little to no improvement.

It didn't take long for people to soon realize that the Prayzz of those many years ago isn't the same one anymore. Lack of constant practice has now turned me into a failed player and unfortunately, to get back to the kind of player I once was those years ago would require a lot of training, sweats and sacrifices, three things I honestly don't think I have in me right now especially when it comes to football.

I guess at the end of it all, I got to understand why they say practice makes perfect because lack of practice makes you a flop.