Skip to main content

My Journey To The Raptors Game

I received two great gifts last week, among which a ticket to the Raptors game. In fact, I had an option to bring a friend. However, it was on a short notice that, the few friends I talked to were not able to make it. So, I went alone.

I know the Raptors are now out of the Playoffs picture, but an NBA game is still fun to watch live. They were playing Carmelo Antony's New York Knicks. This guy can score at will. He is really impressive.

Getting to the Air Canada Centre, I couldn't help but remember many years ago in Burundi watching the game on TV with friends late night (I mean, really late), and now I can see it...live in person. It's mind blowing.

Every year in June, we knew it was the NBA Finals. In my network of friends only my friend Kennedy had access to NBA games. So, ten, sometimes fifteen of us would gather at his house (and this happened for years) at least three times a week to watch the games. Kennedy was so used to us coming that he had food ready, even a bed for those who wanted to sleep before the games came on TV. I am talking 1 am or 3 am depending on the game. Kennedy was (and still is) an awesome guy.

I remember going to Kennedy's with my friend Kijanya. He went to sleep a few hours before the game and asked us to wake him up when the game starts. So we did. But he was so deep in his sleep that he requested to wake him up later at half time. So we did. This time he just said: please wake me up when they are in overtime!!! How in the world did he know the game would go to overtime? Long story short, he never watched the game. He slept all the way.

Sometimes the game would end at 6 am, and we had to go to work at 7.30 in the morning. At that time my friend Ziaddy and I were high school teachers and it was during exams. Can you imagine us standing for hours while waiting for the students to finish their exams knowing that we did not sleep at all at night? It was challenging man! But we did it.

That is what happens when you have passion for something. Time doesn't matter. Sleep? What's that? Everything seems to stop when you know you're doing what you love to do. I would leave work at 1.30 pm, and I was on the Basketball court from 2.30 to 6 pm, them at 7 pm, I was at my other job at the radio station...I remember my manager coming to me to remind me that I had to take my vacations otherwise I would loose them. The word “vacation” was not in my vocabulary because I was doing stuff I loved to do that it did not seem I was working.

What's your passion? What it is that you would do, even for free, and still have fun (and sleepless nights). It is a good question to ask ourselves. Once we find an answer for that, life will never be the same.

Moral of the story? Do you want to find your passion? Go to an NBA game and you will spend sleepless nights.

Always a pleasure

Patrick
The Journeyman


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Journey to Orillia

We drove a little bit late at night. I had been to this place called Orillia before, but it was about ten years ago. I didn’t remember much about it, other than it was beautiful. Here we were on the road, and there was not much we could see, except a signal on the highway that said “beware of cattle”. We thought it was funny.   By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was almost midnight. I went straight to bed. We had to wake up early in the morning as breakfast was scheduled to be served a six O’clock. There was no way I was going to miss out.‎ You may be wondering what was happening in Orillia. I am glad you asked. A number of months ago, Paul, my business partner, got this brilliant idea, and once he shared it with me I was totally on board. He realized that for us to do what we wanted to do, we must work with partners. These may be service providers, or simply other business owners with goals similar to ours. Paul decided to go out and attend different netwo...
1 comment
Read more

My Journey to two stories

I participated in a communication's course last week-end. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. It was unbelievable! Do you know what was the emphasis in the course? Guess! It was communication in relationships! No comment! Lol During the course, I reflected on two stories that I would like to share with you (free of charge of course). Here they are: There was an old guy who was sleeping in his couch. His grandkids came over while he was sleeping and placed a piece of cheese under his nose. Soon after, the guy woke up and exclaimed: “this room stinks!” He went into the kitchen and said again: “This kitchen stinks as well, maybe I should go outside”. He went outside, but still the same smell was around. Finally, in disgust he shouted: “The whole world stinks”. Little did he realize that the scent came from the cheese that was under his nose. Did you like that story? If not, I won’t share the next one. ..........Okay, okay, seeing that you insist, I wi...
2 comments
Read more

My Journey to my wedding

Where do I start? I don't really know. As I am waiting for my flight at Kigali airport, with tears in my eyes, I am thinking about the last few days. There are no words that can explain what I have experienced in this month of December 2010. As Phil Collins said, it's another day in paradise. The person who said that words are powerful was so right. It took a few words from my then girlfriend, now wife (are you kidding me!!!!), to start a series of events that led me to this moment. She just said: “Honey, this long distance thing is killing me”. Having been in a couple of long distance relationships, I knew what she meant. This time, it was different. I had to do something, otherwise, this relationship would end up like the other ones. I had promised myself to do whatever it took to make this one work. As I hung up the phone, I thought I had to move mountains. I had to find a way to meet her. Originally, my intention was to visit her in July 2011, however, this felt like a cent...
5 comments
Read more