When I first joined bowling, I wanted to do it mainly because my friend was joining, and it sounded like it would be pretty easy.

I have never been more wrong in my life. The first day of practice, we had to pick out a bowling ball and a lane to start on. I picked up the lightest ball possible and chose the farthest lane down. (I had been bowling before, but only for fun and with bumpers, too.)

I got up to the lane, threw the ball, and it slid down the alley and knocked about two pins down. At that moment, I knew that bowling would be way harder than I originally thought. I was pretty surprised that I didn’t get a gutter ball, but at the same time I knew that knocking down only two pins in a  try would probably not be good enough. I practiced for about three weeks and struggled with finding the perfect way to throw the ball, and then my first bowling meet came up.

I was really excited to see what a bowling meet was like, but I was also nervous because I wasn’t the most amazing bowler. We got on the bus — all 18 of us — and headed out to the meet in Waterloo. The drive took about two and a half hours, and I was tired before I even started bowling. As we walked in, we could see the other team already prepping for the meet. I immediately thought to myself about how much more put together they looked than we were, and I got even more nervous.

We all lined up and listened to the national anthem, which I was surprised to hear because I only remember hearing the national anthem during baseball games and not bowling meets, but then again I remembered that bowling was technically a sport.

The whole meet I was doing the best I had ever done. I broke 100 twice, which I had never done before in practice, and I was really glad that I was doing this well when it actually counted. The whole team bowled for about two hours, and it was pretty intense towards the end. Everyone did the best they could, and we all cheered each other on, which really helped us unite as a team.

I have met some amazing people through bowling, which I am very grateful for, and I am thrilled that I could have such a great season. I know now that I improved vastly, and by this point in time I consider myself to be a real bowler. I’m excited to show off my bowling skills the next time my friends or family go out bowling. I never thought that bowling could be something that is exhilarating, challenging, uniting and actually fun, but it is all of that and more.