Sanaz, 17

zealous a, (zls): intensely earnest; actively enthusiastic

The girls soccer team had a tradition this season. They would end each game and practice with a one-word cheer: [word], on the count of three: ready? one-two-three-[WORD]! But as the appointed cheer thinker-upper, Sanaz decided that the word she would use for the last game they played in the league really had to embody their soccer experience. Having to anyways sit out due to an injury, Sanaz literally was “thinking of it the entire game.” After such concentrated effort into finding  a word, Sanaz was extremely eager to share one. The game ended, and she ran up to the huddle:

“OK you guys, the word is zeeelous!”
“You mean zealous?” her teammate said, correcting her pronunciation in a vituperative manner.
Sanaz didn’t say anything, “I just kind of smiled to myself,” she said.

Life Lesson: In that moment of time, Sanaz held back her natural response to confront her teammate about it: “Usually I would get offended at things like that,” she said. Though the comment itself was rude, Sanaz said, “I couldn’t really be mad at her– I did say something wrong.” The incident made her realize that, “If I take myself too seriously, then I’ll never really learn anything.” And even beyond that, the acrid comment was just a reminder as to the non-sequential manner life seems to follow. “You learn new things in the most random of situations,” she said. “Like vocabulary on the soccer field.”

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