Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

As long as I can remember, I have been a sports loving girl.  Not so much playing them myself, but watching them. I have always been a baseball fan but when I met Josh, I also became a football fan.  We love Chicago sports teams and the day he married me was also the day he vowed to be a Cubs fan for life.  I'm kidding... (sort of).  We love watching Bears football together and are anticipating the start of a hopefully great season.  I'm definitely one of those fans that use 'we' when talking about the team.  Like I say "We really need to get a new closer." or "Our morale is really down today."  As if I am part of the team.

Thanks to my Aunt, I have been a Cubs fan since before I was born.  Without a doubt, I bleed Cubbie blue- almost to a fault!  As any true Cubs fan can probably tell you, the long stint without a World Series appearance is like an open wound that the media and non-Cubs fans just love to rub salt in. For me, the beginning of each season is always filled with hope.  Even if, like this current season, the experts don't believe the team can do anything impressive.   

They (we, haha) qualified for the playoffs when I was a freshmen and my friends and I watched the playoff games in the basement of the boys dorm.  I made friends with other guys in that dorm based purely on our love for the Cubs, people I would likely never be friends with otherwise. Those two weeks or so of playoff games, was some of the most fun I have ever had.

I'm not even going to go into the reason why our playoffs hopes ended that year only a few outs away from the World Series, but during those last innings of Game 7 in the basement of the smelly boys dorm surrounded by guys that were fellow diehard fans (and my girlfriends who weren't sure they really cared but were there for me in solidarity) was what being a Cubs fan was really about for me.  I think back to all of us glued to the screen, praying out loud for a hit, fingers/toes/elbows/arms crossed for luck, wearing our lucky clothing, afraid to even breathe.  Obviously, it didn't work out for us that year and we were devastated but the feeling of being in that room remains with me whenever I watch the games.

I like to think that being a Cubs fan actually affects my outlook on life.  I am an optimist in almost all areas, something that fellow Cubs fans probably have in common.  There is nothing that I hate more than sports fans who talk about the season being a wash before it even starts.  Anything can happen, that's the beauty of it for me.

 

Sunday is the first Bears football game of the season and I am SO pumped.  Bring on the jerseys, football food, and cold weather.  GO BEARS!!!