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There was pin drop silence in the room. Everyone in the
room stopped what they were doing and their eyes were glued to the ball moving
to and fro on the table. It was the semi-final match in the women’s singles
category of the intra office Table Tennis tournament. Not a big deal. It was
the 5th set in a game of 5 sets and both the players had two sets
each. The score line now read 10-8. One of them was just a point away from
winning the set and the game. The faces of the both the players had anxious
looks. Some time ago that wasn’t case.
It had started as just another match in the tournament. A
one sided match was the prediction. It was a match between an experienced
player and a newbie whose entry into semis itself was a surprise. The experienced
player was all set to win the game in straight sets. The first two sets were a
cakewalk. The beginning of the third set also told the same story. The score
line read 9-3. The experienced player was just 2 points away from winning the
game. But it wasn’t going to be so easy. The scores for the set went on to
become 10-10 and after 3 consecutive deuces, the match wasn’t over yet. The 4th
set was played and again the set went into deuces and the match wasn’t over
till the 5th set. “What a comeback!”, exclaimed some. “It is okay if
you lose, you still have a lot of chances”, said someone else. But there was
just one thing in the mind of the newbie-“To give her best!”.
As she tossed the ball in the air to serve the last point,
she remembered the first time that she started playing the game and that was
just a few months ago. She never thought she would participate in the
tournament, let alone going that far. And for a moment she thought she had lost
the match and there was no way to come back. But then something within her told
her to go on, to give her best and just play the game rather than thinking
about the result of the match and that is what she did. She chose not to give
up! The opponent hit the ball to the net and it took time for the feeling to
sink in. The feeling of having conquered one’s fear, the sweet feeling of
victory, the feeling of rising from the ashes! Giving up would have been easy
as there wasn’t much to lose per se. But the joy and the confidence could never
be gained if she had given up.
This isn’t a story. It is something that really happened.
And how do I know it? Keep guessing ;-) If our minds are set on doing
something, no matter how difficult the task at hand is, we can do it if we don’t
give up. How better a place the world would be if each of us believed in
ourselves and never gave up!
This post is written for Write Tribe's #MondayMusings.