July 19, 2026
I love to play tennis. It’s been my thing for the past eighteen months, and I hope to continue into the future. To play tennis, I unfortunately have to play with other people, which brings me to why I’m writing today.
This morning, I met up with a buddy who asked me to “go hit”. In my mind, “go hit” means to practice rallies. Try to hit a couple forehands or backhands or do a certain series of hits before opening up for point play. Yet my friend just wanted to play a match. Full intensity.
Sigh.
When I play a match, I can get rather competitive. I can yell, pump my fist, and get pretty intense. It’s annoying, to be honest. I just want a friend who will go out and hit a ball with me without all the pressure, but that feels impossible to find.
There’s just something about points that’ll make a man crazy. Not that I went crazy today, but I wasn’t able to think about my shots and technique as much as I’d like. I was too focused on the scoreboard. I just wanted to hit the ball, chat a bit, drink my water, and go on with my day.
He came out guns blazing. He’d been practicing lately and wanted to get revenge against me for the last match I won. I didn’t come prepared for what he was bringing. When I play matches, I’m prepared and in the zone, but I wasn’t there today at all. I thought I’d made it clear before we met I just wanted to “go hit”, but I guess I was wrong.
To be fair, we hadn’t been explicitly clear about what we were planning to do besides “go hit”, but I feel like “go hit” doesn’t imply “play a friendly match” or “play for points”. I’m probably overreacting, but right now I don’t feel like playing tennis with him or anyone else.
I’ll probably get over it tomorrow, but I wouldn’t be thinking about any of this right now if we’d just hit the ball around for a bit.
People are exhausting.
Myself included.
– Xander
