On Tuesday, a kid in my class saw me wearing my juggling club t-shirt and asked how he could join the club. Of course, I was delighted because the club's dying at the end of this semester if we don't get more active members. So I gave him the meeting times and surreptitiously watched him look up juggling websites all through class and got really excited that we'd have a new member.
Wednesday's practice came, and I got to practice and told Rob excitedly about this new kid who said he was going to join, and Rob rolled his eyes and said it wouldn't happen, he wouldn't stay for more than a week or two, et cetera et cetera... and as if to prove his argument, Casey never showed up. So I got very depressed, because to me, canceling juggling club because nobody goes is as if someone decided to kill my mother, using the excuse "Because nobody wants her." Of course someone does! I want her! (Actually, that's a bad example, because my mom is one of the most well-loved people I know. But you get my meaning.)
So Thursday rolled around, and I went to class and saw Casey, who said, "I'm so sorry for missing practice. I lost the times you gave me, so I looked them up on your website, but you must have changed the times, because I showed up at 6:30 and waited around for an hour and no one showed up!" Well... okay, that's true. Our web master dropped off the face of the earth, the website hasn't been updated in a few years, and last semester, we changed Wednesday practices from 7:00 to 8:30. Oops! So suddenly, the world was good again, and Casey and I started babbling about fireballs and Rubenstein's Revenge and silly people who think they can't juggle because they spent five whole minutes practicing and still can't do it. And two of the other kids in our little group of friends heard us, and one said she wanted to learn how to juggle and would probably start coming on Sundays, and the other guy said, "Well, if everyone else is doing it, sure, why not?"
Thursday evening, I bugged Rob to try and contact the web master, if only to get the information we need to update the website. Rob said sure, and by the way, he got another job, so he can't make it to practice on Fridays anymore. So Rob didn't show up on Friday, but Casey did, and so did a guy named Dustin, who used to be in the club a few years ago. I basically begged him to start coming regularly again. He said he can only make it on Fridays, but that he would try to come as often as he could, and that he would also try to contact the people who used to be in the club and don't come anymore for whatever reason. Yay!!!
Practice yesterday was the most fun it's been in months! First, Casey and I traded some tricks. Casey knows at least as many tricks as I do, and he's also better at juggling four balls. The really sad thing is, he's only been juggling for two weeks, he says. Apparently, he got bored two weeks ago, decided to learn how to juggle, and spent a day or two doing absolutely nothing but eating, sleeping, and juggling. I'm astounded at how fast he picked up not only juggling, but also terminology. We went outside briefly to play with Casey's fireballs (AWESOME!) because it was actually above zero yesterday! Then Dustin and I spent an hour practicing passing and solids and doubles (club passing tricks). We all spat out some ideas for fun routines we could do in shows, and Casey seems as vehement as I am about keeping the juggling club alive. When I said I was going to find a way to keep the juggling club from dying no matter what, Casey insisted that he would help.
I'm really excited. Rob may or may not be right about the other two kids in the class coming just a few times, realizing that juggling takes work before it's fun, and never coming again, but I get the feeling Casey's going to stick around for a while, and as long as we have at least two people who are actually willing to try hard to keep the club alive, I think we have a chance.
In addition, I now have at least another semester to work on it, since 1) my professor in my senior seminar asked me to drop the class, and 2) I only just found out that I apparently need a minor to graduate. (Oy vey, I'm going to be an undergraduate forever, and I'm not even majoring in something considered difficult like engineering!)
2 comments:
Cool. Clubs are always more fun with more than two people. or three. or four, even.
Remember the guys who were bragging about the wild game they'd bagged out on safari with their rifles, and one of the fellows said, "Rifles, hummmpph. I once killed a wild lion with nothing but a club." Everyone was impressed until they found out that there were 30 members of the club.
This sounds like fun. Everyone asked about you at recorder tonight. And whether or not Rosetta Stone came through for you. :P
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