Standing at the Tornado

Writing about my entire life is difficult. It also probably gets boring to read after a while, so I'm going to go about splitting up entries in a way that isn't purely chronological. Just for the fun of it, I suppose.

So, what's this about? Well, one of the more unexpected but pleasant surprises of school was a random hobby I picked up. The name? Most people around here call it Foosball.

Foosball? That game that's in Slounge (yes, slounge not schlounge)? The one that's nearly always broken by days upon days of abuse? Yes, that one. The one where you'd find countless people hopelessly spinning the rods trying to make contact with the ball that would never seem to go in the goal.

But yes, that's a new hobby of mine. I like finding things with a lot of depth to them, and in my opinion foosball fits that description surprisingly well. There's so much to learn. How to pull, how to push, how to snake, how to euro, how to brush pass ... the list goes on and on. Whenever I show up to the tables, I have a hard time deciding what I'm going to practice. It's pretty bad actually - as soon as I make a mistake doing a brush pass I immediately switch to something else, like snake shots. Maybe that's why I love it though - there's too much to learn, and no matter how much time I had to practice, I wouldn't even come close to being as good as I'd like.

How did I come across foosball? It's a bit of a strange story, actually. The foosball tables and the pingpong tables are actually located about 20 feet from each other. I would usually be waiting for a game or just watching people play pingpong, and to alleviate boredom I messed around on the foosball tables. It also would be unfair of me to not credit A-Rod, because he drags me down to the game room every single time we share a break.

Why so serious, then? After all, there's a big step between swinging at the ball aimlessly and systematically practicing my shots. Well, it's hard not to notice the people there that are good. The sound that a snake shot makes by hitting the back of the goal is actually unmistakable. I'd heard it before in youtube videos. When I heard it for the first time, I had to go check it out.

Those people are, to say the least, incredible. They've spend absurd amounts of time honing their skills. I stood there awkwardly long enough for them to invite me to play. After I accepted, I ... to use a polite term, was absolutely destroyed. They weren't even trying. Every single time the ball went to their forwards, it would soon be followed by that oh-so-satisfying (at least for them) sound of the ball slamming into the back of the goal. I wanted to hear that for myself. And they were only too happy to show me how.

As you may have noticed, I always like to include the people component of whatever I'm up to. Foosball isn't some anti-social activity where I stand alone at a table for hours on end practicing shots in order to crush some nameless face in a game that means virtually nothing. Rarely do I practice alone, actually. There's almost always some else at the tables. Whether it's A-Rod, who for some reason I can always laugh about something with, or other people I've met by hanging out around the tables, there's always interesting conversation. And now, the interesting conversation is occasionally accompanied by the sound of the ball hitting the back of my opponent's goal.

One person who never lets me have that satisfaction in games with him is the president of the club. He plays foosball at the semi-pro level (there are actual official terms for there, and I'm not using them). I can't even get the ball past his 5-bar (midfield). He is, simply put, amazing at that game. The reason the foosball community at CMU exists is because of him. He has, either directly or indirectly, taught virtually the entire foosball club how to play.

He's not just an amazing foosball player though. He's also a student. A pre-med student who just took his MCATs, and is on the verge of graduation from CMU. A student? On the verge of graduation? Sound familiar? Granted, I graduated from high school, but similarities are apparent. His take on things is always interesting. Proud of his accomplishments, he sometimes comes across as arrogant. But anyone who knows him will understand that he's an unbelievably nice guy who cares not just about our foosball skills but how we're doing overall.

So when I tell people I play foosball as a hobby, I get some quizzical looks. Yeah, it's not conventional. Even less so than pingpong. But I haven't gotten tired of practicing. I haven't gotten tired of hearing the ball hit the back of my opponent's goal. I don't think I will for a long time. But even if I do, there's something foosball will never take away from me. It brought me into a community that I never dreamed I'd join. And even if I do stop playing, I'll still be a member.

Making friends can be work. Sometimes, though, things fall into place. It's surprising how things can work out by putting yourself in the right place and going wherever it takes you.