Giving Them A Sporting Chance

(My grandma, two brothers, little sister, and I are at the mall. Grandma is signing us up for children’s sports teams. I am female and really want to play football, as I used to play it everyday with my grandpa.)

Grandma: “Two of my grandchildren would like to play football just like their grandpa did.”

Registrar: “Names?”

(My grandma gives our names, and the registrar writes them down. I see I’ve been put down for ballet.)

Me: “Um, you put me in ballet. I want to play football.”

(The registrar looks at the paper and his eyes widen.)

Registrar: “I am REALLY sorry. It’s just that all girls that come here want to do ballet, so I got a habit of putting down girls for ballet.”

(The registrar rubs my name from ballet and re-writes it in football.)

Registrar: “What about the other two?”

Grandma: “Well, [Sister’s Name] here wants to do ballet and [Brother’s Name] wants to play basketball.”

(Their names are put down. The organizer looks over the registrar’s shoulder.)

Organizer: “Wait, you put a girl down in the wrong place. You put her in football. She should be in ballet!”

Me: “Actually, I’m the girl in football. I like football and want to follow in my grandpa’s footsteps.”

Organizer: “Oh, don’t be stupid. Girls hate football! They hate all sorts of sports!”

Me: “Really? Watch this.”

(I pull out my phone and show the organizer and registrar a video of me playing football against the toughest boy in school. Even though he is five grades higher than me I manage to beat him.)

Registrar: *smiling* “So I guess this strong, young lady will stay in football right?”

Organizer: “Fine, we start this Saturday. If you can survive the tests, you can join.”

(Surprise! I survived and played great!)