Wow. I really don’t even know where to start. So many things happened over this weekend and they just came so fast.
You know how it is, you know something is coming but you don’t really feel the weight of it until it’s here, it’s now. You can prepare yourself, you can worry, you can be excited but you really don’t know how you’ll feel until you are experiencing it—and even then, if you are like me, you won’t know what to make of it.
I’ll do my best to sort it out for you. So Saturday night we had our last basketball game of the season. We had won the previous game, securing our place in the top 10 of the league but we still had a chance to come in eighth and therefore make the playoffs. Going into our last game we needed four things to happen: we needed to win (obviously) and we needed three other games to go our way. Clearly we could not decide our playoff fate alone and the best we could do was win and wait.
I don’t think we needed any motivation to win on Saturday. We all wanted to end the season on a strong note and we wanted to give our fans something to remember us by. Our fans had given so much to us during the year, they really supported us and the least we could do was play our hearts out and provide another “W.” And, I wouldn’t say it was our best game of the year but we did manage to come out on top. We came in a tie for eighth place but when it was all said and done we ended up on the ninth spot (only one of those games didn’t go the way we needed it to and that game went into overtime!).
We celebrated (appropriately) on Saturday night and I had to say goodbye to some teammates as I am not sure I will see them again. The hardest part is not knowing. This is the fifth year I have said goodbye to people, not being totally sure that I could tell them “see you again soon!”
After every basketball season I don’t know what to say. Of course people ask me “are you coming back?” “What will you do next year?” “Do you think you’ll play in Germany again?” And so on. I understand their curiosity and I wish I could tell them one way or the other but right now it is way too early to tell. I’m just processing the fact that this seven month season has come to an end. It really hasn’t sunk in that I won’t be going to practice tonight, or lifting weights tomorrow morning, I won’t be teaching English on Wednesday, either. The changes in my life are so abrupt and after five years they have also become predictable but, it doesn’t make them any easier.
After some time away from Germany and basketball I hope to be a little clearer on my next move. And like every year I will wish for a clear cut answer and a 100% sure decision; then after realizing there is no such thing… I’ll make a choice anyway!
But first things first, a little R + R in Austria and Hungary (two more countries I can check off my list) and a last hurrah with my housemates. Ugh. Then I’ll have to say goodbye to the people I have literally spent 90% of my last seven months with. I’ve done it plenty of times before though, piece of cake… right?
