Outdoor Soccer

Michele invited me to come and meet the team. I drove out to the soccer complex in Bernalillo with Victor and Maria Elena to meet the team.

I thought the team was great; they got along well, played soccer as a sport and not a competition, and they bonded together well. I did notice that there was a difference between me and a majority of the other players; while I was married to Victor, many of them were married as well. However I was married to a man, and many of them were married or dating women. I was not uncomfortable at all and started playing the next week with the team.

The first game I played, I was very self-conscious as I didn’t bring any skill to the team. I started off in defense as that allowed me to watch more and get a better feel for the game. I would feel my heartbeat race if the ball got close to me. The team we were playing against was very hostile. We would have teams like this over the next seven years that I played-team names would change, team members would change, but I found that the friendships did NOT change