If Only Everyone Played Hacky Sac

THE PAST… Hacky Sac isn’t really a game. After all, no one wins. There is no competition amongst members of the hacky circle. I’d never really been good at anything before. It was more than being short. My body was so physically underdeveloped, that it was literally impossible for me to compete. My body wasn’t capable of muscles.

One has a lot of time in their sophomore year of college. A sophomore learns how to prioritize the most important things. Sophomore year was critical in my development. I became a truly exceptional hacky sac player. Paul D introduced me to the game and taught me how to play.

I know my dad wondered whether or not he was getting his money’s worth at Albion. I was already on academic probation by my third semester. At the end of my first semester freshman year, he and my mom brought me back to school after the Christmas break. They were horrified by my 2.4 grade point average. My mom had to restrain my dad and send him back to the car when they walked in on my freshman room to discover it had turned into a bar. I was almost out of money by the end of my first semester freshman year. I decided to take every penny I had and put it into alcohol. I had a party in my freshman room, had the 6’2" lacrosse player next door come on as a partner. He sold tickets and we sold beer and mixed drinks. I’m sure it was a great party, although one of my parent’s friends and Albion legacies, Amy, had come up right before Christmas to visit. I felt compelled to show her the campus. I didn’t attend my own party and apparently we didn’t make any money. But my room was thoroughly trashed with hundreds of cups filled with stale beer, furniture removed and trash everywhere.

But hacky sac, I was sure, was an activity at which I could excel. There is nothing like that first moment where you are better than anyone but Joe Waschley in a hacky circle filled with the best of the best. The power of competency is intoxicating. I knew my dad would not be proud that I could pull a rogue sack back into the circle with the outside of my foot extended back behind me and well over my head. But I felt something. And Paul D. was always there cheering me on. No one had ever told me how amazing I was. I was starting to get a sense of what was important. I was starting to develop opinions about things. I had gone from invisible, to visible to something beyond visible. I didn’t quite know what it was but I was starting to assert myself upon the world for the first time. My goal was not to win, or compete. I only wanted to bring the hacky sac back into the circle with a spectacular kick for everyone’s benefit.