Being a sports fan is funny...

Typically I use this (albeit new) blog space to write about figure skating, but I was getting myself geared up to start writing about my other sporting love- Formula One. It works out great for me- figure skating season ends in early April, just as the F1 season gets going. And after Sunday’s chaotic, disastrous, ridiculous Australian GP, I was ready to write my rant about everything I thought went wrong, everything I thought was unfair, everything that was exciting.

But instead I found myself reflecting on how funny it is to be a sports fan. It’s funny that so many of us dedicate so much love to spectacles that don’t involve us. We get up at ungodly hours in the morning to watch things happening across the globe. We pay for separate subscriptions, make ourselves google calendar reminders, cancel plans like no tomorrow, just so we’ll never miss a second of action. Sports create this electric community of people who are excited, hopeful, engaged, and committed. In my case, being a fan of very niche sports, this community feels even more deeply connected by the strings of odd knowledge that we've strived to learn about rules and regulations.

A fan community can laugh together, cry together, sometimes argue together, and even when people support opposing teams, there’s a mutual respect and understanding that doesn’t seem to exist in any other spheres. And we channel this intense energy and love into people we’ll never know or meet, who are able to do things we couldn’t possibly dream of.

Sometimes I find myself feeling sad, that perhaps in loving a sport and loving athletes, I feel a deep regret that I am not great enough at something. But mostly, I think it’s wonderful- to celebrate what humans can do and to do it with other humans. Being a sports fan is funny.