Stories by Deccers (2 matches)

Finding Nemo On the Cricket Grounds

On Thursday, I volunteered to go down to my local sports youth training night, and was doing the usual things: chasing around looking for different-sized and different-coloured cones, and throwing balls at the smallest five-year olds who couldn't catch them. 

When I looked over to the Cricket nets (yes, I'm English and I play Cricket :)) at the other side of the field, there he was -- a tiny young lad called Nemo, half Sri Lankan and half German, who was trying his heart out to compete with the better players on the grounds.

The ridicule that he suffered reminded me of myself a couple of years ago, when I was at that age (I'm16 now).  Worst part is the torment of being bad at something that you love with all your heart and soul.

So I went over to him, and had a small one-on-one coaching session with him for about half an hour.

When I saw his little face light up with delight as he got it right, I realised the reason why I was volunteered in the first place -- not to help because it made me look good or impressed everyone, but because an act of kindness is in itself rewarding.

Helping That 'ex'tra Special Someone

I had been dating this girl for seven months, and me and her had been getting very close. Seeing each other for days on end, spending every waking (and non-waking) moment together, and generally getting more and more involved with each second. Then the unexpected happens: she dumps me! To this day, I still don't know exactly why.  Something about her changing and wanting to move on.   Maybe she just wanted to "get" with other guys and everything -- she can be shallow that way. At this point, I was pretty shook up, unable to accept that things had ended.  I was going through the classic stages y'know: denial, anger, going-to-my-ex-girlfriends-counselling-so-she-won't-be-lonely. yer, and so on.  But less than a week after my first ever proper breakup, I'm around her, taking a car, a bus and a train to go help her.  With a load of our m8s, we both head to this massive music festival in Essex with ... Read Full Story >>