People

 I love people. 

My university is currently hosting a football premier league and it's so damn cool. There are 24 owners, 240 players, auctions for players, team practices, professional personalized jerseys, matches from 6pm to 1am every day, and insane sideline cheering. There is a special podcast for the league, a live Twitter, and crazy social media coverage. 

I was bought by 5 incredible owners on the 3rd of April. That is where my journey with AFC Elephant began. I knew only 2 other guys on my team and that was it. After two weeks of practices that started at 8pm and got over at 2 am, we played in the APL. We had two draws and 1 devastating loss in the group stage which led to us getting knocked out of the league early, but man I have no regrets. My team was incredible. My owners were even better. They brought us odomos (Sonipat mosquitoes are something else), iced tea, gatorade, water, medical supplies and gum every practice. We had one night of team bonding where we played FIFA as a team and that was CRAZY fun. 

Yesterday, after we lost our last match, we were gutted. We were all sitting in silence, some of us with tears in our eyes. And then suddenly one of the owners said they had an announcement. They announced that it was my birthday (everyone knew that already, of course) but then they produced a cake out of nowhere. I was so emotional I cried later. It was so incredibly touching. So at 11:55pm, with 5 minutes left of what was my birthday, 15 people who I knew only for 2 weeks gathered around me and sang for me. When I looked around, I saw family in each of them. 

I was dreading this birthday because it was going to be my first campus birthday ever. I was away from home, my family and my closest friends from school. But little things like this made it so genuinely nice. My best friends decorated my room and got me the CUTEST gifts ever. My second closest set of campus friends got me the prettiest bracelet. My roommate and I went for a date. It was just perfect. The loss didn't matter in the end. I won, and that's that. 

Yesterday I discovered how people can change anything - how people are so lovely and special and good-hearted. Everyone surprised me in the best way possible and I am so grateful that I have the best friends, and an incredible team behind me. 

I'm so excited to play in the next premier league, and I hope my owners buy me again, because honestly, they're such amazing people. My birthday ended up being really special and I could never have predicted that all of this was going to happen. People are unpredictable. People make things better. I love people. 


xoxo

aishu 

20-04-2024

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