Ten Minute Talks: Basketball and my Happy Place

When I worked on my college essays, the common app had a question that I just couldn’t answer: Describe a place where you’re fully happy.

It’s difficult to do, because so many of the things I enjoy also give me grief. Obviously I could take to “hanging out with my friends” as a simple response, but even in those moments I’ve always been distracted by my mental to-do lists. Though I did play the clarinet, it usually happened far too early in the morning for me to really appreciate it. I loved debate, and the feeling of winning a close round was to that point the best I’d felt. But I was too competitive for it to be a happy place. I also hated debate sometimes too.

At some point, long after I finished that application and was attending college, I found my answer to the question: basketball.

Now I don’t have a perfect history with basketball. I grew up playing basketball at summer camps, largely because it kept my brother and me busy while our parents worked. But I was never good. The furthest my basketball career got was getting cut from the middle school team in seventh grade.

But in a way, that’s been liberating. Unlike debate, I haven’t really cared about basketball. And so that hyper-competitiveness that made me hate debate sometimes wasn’t there.

And unlike playing the clarinet or hanging with friends, basketball is a time when I can be fully present.

When I play basketball, that’s all I do. I don’t stress about the next stage of my life. I don’t have to think about whatever assignments are sitting on my to do list.

My first and last thought is in the game. Every play it changes.

In a way, it’s an exercise in mindfulness. Each moment in basketball is fully in the present. There’s no time to think about past mistakes or future decisions. All I can focus on is what’s right in front of me: the person I’m guarding, the screen I’m setting, or the shot I’m taking. And concentrating on more fundamental things like my footwork keeps me rooted in the experience.

Once I realized that basketball gives me this chance to be fully present to something, I also saw how lacking it is in the rest of my life. The fact that my phone is always with me hardly helps.

To compensate, I’ve begun to introduce some routines that let me be fully present. I’ve stopped checking my phone in breaks in my workout, instead sticking to workouts that keep me engaged and focused on the exercise. Each night, I take time to read a physical book before bed, disconnecting from the rest of the world.

But at the end of the day, the basketball court is my happy place. Running from one side of the court to another, grabbing rebounds and pounding the ball on the floor, I find a chance to be me. If I want to be frustrated or angry, I can be angry. If I want to celebrate, I can celebrate. Those 20 minutes in each game are a time of pure, unadulterated escape.