Juggling

Juggling the soccer ball has to be one of the greatest activities of all time. I could honestly juggle for hours on end, whether by myself or with other people. I attribute this love to Chris Matheson. Back in 8th grade, I believe in the spring or maybe the fall, Chris and I were bored and decided to juggle the soccer ball (I don't exactly remember how we ended up juggling the soccer ball, whether we were bored or not). Anyway when we started, getting in the 20s was a big deal. Then after a week or so we were pushing 50. A week later I think we had reached the century mark; anything was possible now in our minds. Chris would set a new record and then I would beat it and then Chris would beat it and then I would beat it. It went back and forth for a long while. It takes a long time to juggle 200 times straight, so when your record is like 250 and you get close but don't break it, you become really mad because it takes so much time to get back to that high a number. Well we finally stopped caring about records somewhere in the 500s. I remember the last time that I counted was in 9th grade and I juggled 578 times before finally succumbing to the law of gravity. Over the spring break, Ralph and I had some extra time at the gym. After lifting we did some juggling and we got to talking about how many we could do in a row. I had not counted while juggling since the 9th grade. Actually that is not true. Last year Jamis got a mini soccer ball as his "senior" present on the varsity soccer team. I borrowed that mini soccer ball because it is far more challenging, and I got over 200 juggles with it. Anyway, the juggling with Ralph and the conversation convinced me that I should break my record of 578. The next day I stepped out the the front yard of the Matthes's house and within an hour I had broken my record. I didn't shatter it, but 608 wasn't anything for me to complain about. A new record under the belt. I just love the juggling.