a short tennis story.
I know I normally write short stories but I've been too stressed and busy to come up with one so here I am talking to you about something I recently noticed.
I'm a tennis player, which means that I go to a lot of tennis practice sessions with a group of people. Usually, we're divided upon the tennis courts and that leads to about 4 players, a trainer and a ball boy in each one. You see, the ball boys are all young dumb and broke. I'm just kidding, they're just young and poor. Shout out to all the Khalid fans reading this!
They youngest ball boy is around 7 and the oldest is approximately 14. Although all courts include baskets full of balls, they get empty pretty quickly and that's where the ball boys come in handy and the story begins. What I noticed is that whenever someone needs a ball they shout "BALL!" impatiently, or yell at the young boys with something along the lines of "What are you waiting for huh? Don't you see that I need a ball?" and don't get me started with how the coaches sometimes smack their heads if they see them joking around with the other ball boys instead of doing their jobs. That's all pretty ordinary right? Well, let me clarify more.
Whenever I need a ball I ask "Can I have a ball?" and after receiving it I say "Thank you.". This leads to them smiling a couple of times as they're not used to this polite behaviour headed towards them. Yes, I do understand the frustration of the coaches when they find them playing and distracted but that's completely normal for kids. Name one 7~14-year-old boy who doesn't like to play or cannot get distracted.
My point is that there's nothing wrong with using 'please' and 'thank you' while talking to them as it makes their jobs a little more bearable. In fact, I have been thinking for a while to buy a toy for one of the ball boys working there to make him happy so hopefully, I'll do that soon.
Lastly, I'm sorry for this short and terribly-written blog. I'm writing this on the same day it's supposed to be published. I'd promise that my next blog would be a fictional story but promises are made to be surely kept.
I'm a tennis player, which means that I go to a lot of tennis practice sessions with a group of people. Usually, we're divided upon the tennis courts and that leads to about 4 players, a trainer and a ball boy in each one. You see, the ball boys are all young dumb and broke. I'm just kidding, they're just young and poor. Shout out to all the Khalid fans reading this!
They youngest ball boy is around 7 and the oldest is approximately 14. Although all courts include baskets full of balls, they get empty pretty quickly and that's where the ball boys come in handy and the story begins. What I noticed is that whenever someone needs a ball they shout "BALL!" impatiently, or yell at the young boys with something along the lines of "What are you waiting for huh? Don't you see that I need a ball?" and don't get me started with how the coaches sometimes smack their heads if they see them joking around with the other ball boys instead of doing their jobs. That's all pretty ordinary right? Well, let me clarify more.
Whenever I need a ball I ask "Can I have a ball?" and after receiving it I say "Thank you.". This leads to them smiling a couple of times as they're not used to this polite behaviour headed towards them. Yes, I do understand the frustration of the coaches when they find them playing and distracted but that's completely normal for kids. Name one 7~14-year-old boy who doesn't like to play or cannot get distracted.
My point is that there's nothing wrong with using 'please' and 'thank you' while talking to them as it makes their jobs a little more bearable. In fact, I have been thinking for a while to buy a toy for one of the ball boys working there to make him happy so hopefully, I'll do that soon.
Lastly, I'm sorry for this short and terribly-written blog. I'm writing this on the same day it's supposed to be published. I'd promise that my next blog would be a fictional story but promises are made to be surely kept.