Closing the door on my final years as a pre-teen kid wasn't easy, especially the avalanche 2001 sent crashing down. 2002 came with a hint of promise that things were going to get better, at least for the time being. It was all the little things that happened throughout that year that began to right the ship in my life.
Jordan, the kid I had become good friends with from my soccer team, and I began to hang out a lot more. Now Jordan lived a few miles from my house so if I went over, I was dropped off. But if the weather was good, I would ask my mom if I could bike there. As an 11 year-old kid, I was allowed to bike by myself, down two lane highways, a few miles away, with no cellphone, and it was no problem. I didn't even have to call her to tell her I made it there. The only stipulation I had was to be back at a certain time. What a time to be alive. It was also a treat for me to be able to go over to his house because he had a PlayStation 1 with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. When I think of classic childhood video games, that one was easily top 5. With all the different game modes, challenges, and maps you had to skate your way through, hours would tick on by, yet it felt like a few fleeting minutes. Most young boys who played that game had some urge to get into skateboarding, me included. You better believe the skateboard I put on my present list that year was in relation to Tony Hawk.
A memory I love to revisit was created at Jordan's as well. One day, after we took a break from gaming, we had left an opened bag of Doritos on his bed while we had gone to another part of the house. Not long after that, we heard the familiar crinkling sound of the chip bag. We bolted back up to his room to find his dog (Belle) with the bag of chips stuck on her head. I fell on the floor laughing while he corralled the dog and removed the bag. "Dang it she ate all the Doritos!" Jordan said in disgust. I still chuckle when I picture that scene.
February brought a brief moment that impacted me for years to come. My first Super Bowl I watched start to finish. It was just me, in my parent's bedroom, staring at a tiny tube tv. Kurt Warner's St. Louis Rams and defending champs took on the New England Patriots and a back-up QB in his first season known as Tom Brady. You all know the story. A legend was born that night and I watched in awe as Adam Vinatieri kicked the Patriots to victory and begin what was known as the Brady Era.
To me, 2002 was a huge year for pop culture in TV and movies. Ice Age, Lilo & Stitch, and Toby McGuire's Spider-Man all made their debuts. My family still to this day quotes Ice Age (and some of its sequels) in casual conversation. American Idol also made its debut taking the US by storm with Kelly Clarkson winning season 1.
As summer made its welcomed appearance, it brought some memorable times as it usually did. One of the first was when an entire family from another part of the world came to visit. I do not know how Al and Sue knew them, but this family came all the way from Saipan to our little dot on the map of a town. A quick geography lesson. Saipan is an island located north of Guam in the middle of the Pacific. I had never before heard of it until they showed up. There were also a lot of kids. I want to say at least five, but my mind refuses to give me the exact number. So what did Al & Sue do with a house full of people? Well they invited more people over of course! My whole family went, as did Alice, Melinda, Joanna, Chalene, Cam, and a slew of other people. We were in for a wild night.
While the adults talked and hung out on Al's front porch, 15+ kids ran amok under the setting summer sun. With our new found friends, we played scores of games such as hide-and-seek, manhunt, and whatever else we made up that night. One crazy thing some of us boys decided to do was take a beat-up toy riding jeep and see how crazy we could drive it. Cam wanted to test the limits the most, so he told a group of boys to push him down the hill and into the creek. They obliged and he cheered as it picked up speed and did end up in the creek. One of the boys from Saipan thought it would be even crazier to drive it off the little foot bridge. So he did. Somehow, during all of our shenanigans, no one got hurt. I don't really remember too much more from that night other than the fact that there was a lot of love from everyone.
The ones from Saipan stayed another week or so before leaving, but that experience was crucial in my life for a few reasons. The first being that I never really interacted with kids from that culture before. The area I grew up in did have people of different races and backgrounds, but they were so few and far between as the overwhelming majority was white. So for me to meet boys my age, with light brown skin, and from another part of the world, it showed me how a like we all truly were. They enjoyed similar things as I did, had no problem playing our games (some of which they knew), and were fun people. I think the biggest kicker for me was when I had asked them if they had seen Ice Age yet thinking new American movies hadn't reached that part of the world. I was dead wrong. They had seen Ice Age plus many others I rattled off. Life lesson for sure.
Fall brought in my second season of soccer and this time we got yellow shirts. The new team name was the ever original Yellow Jackets. We had a good number of familiar faces return plus some new ones, but we also did have a few say good by. Alan moved up to the high school ranks and played on the travel team. Both Garrett and Ashley did not return and I didn't see them in the league that season so I could only speculate that they aged-out as well. Emily was no longer able to practice on our weekly night so she unfortunately switched teams. As for Cody, he wasn't old enough to age out and I could not recall whether or not he too played for a different team, but he was no longer on ours. We did gain nine new players to fill the holes left by the departed. Three of the new squad members made a quick impression. The first was Eddie. Dude was full of jokes, high energy, and could be very aggressive on the ball. The next was Samantha, Sam for short. She was quite athletic and like Emily before her, had a big smile filled with sunshine. The last was my sister Sarah who decided she wanted to take her backyard skills to the actual pitch.
There were no legendary games that season, but there sure were a few intense ones. We had to learn how to gel with our new team-mates as well as our assistant coach who was Eddie's dad. That man had a thick black mustache, a big smile, and a passion for soccer. I could see at that age the how he wanted to instill that in his son. Not only was Eddie good, but was a carefree and caring at the same time. I'm glad to have met him.
As the soccer season came to a close, my birthday came and I was eleven no more. I had entered the final of my preteen years and couldn't have been more excited. What was 2003 going to bring? I could only wonder. But little did I know then, 2003 was going to challenge 2001 with its own extreme roller coaster of emotions, events, and general chaos. The championship fight for challenging years was about to begin.
