You Can't Have it All

But you can have the breeze gently strike your face, refreshing you after an intense practice. You can have the sweet sound of a flawless shot entering the hoop, touching nothing but net. You can have the sound of basketball shoes squeaking against the wooden floor. You can have an unconditional friend who understands you no matter how much you change; music. You can have your dog jumping on your lap, with its tongue out, begging to play with her. You can have the birds singing their sweet melody at 5:30 Am as you’re eating breakfast. You can have all your family squished into a three person couch frantically screaming at the TV screen as a boxer gets knocked out. You can chat with friends for hours which seem like minutes. You can have fresh lemons in your garden to make the most refreshing, thirst quenching lemonade. You can head bang to a guitar riff and air drum to a drum solo. You can have a long bus ride providing you with just enough time to finish homework you forgot to do. You can see people’s perplexed faces as you say you have 8 siblings. You can answer “work” when people ask what you did in class, and get a kick out of it every time. You can get mistaken for a classmate all the time. You can lie in a hammock and drift off into sleep, leaving behind all your worries. You can chase the paletero all the way to the other neighborhood just for an Eskimo pie. You can scream “Not in my house!” as you block the shot of an opponent. You can dream of being a cowboy astronaut football player. You can have a personal handshake with every friend. You can watch the underdog, surface with renewed hope to beat the best team. You can watch your 78 year old grandpa going up to the 20 year old cashier ladies and flirting with them, reciting them poems, and singing songs to them. You can have a grandpa that prefers walking a mile to the store than being taken by car. You can see Kobe Bryant making a buzzer beater leading Lakers to a win. You can get an A on a dreaded test, without the need of studying. You can’t be the best from the start, but you can strive for it, practice every day leaving sweat and hope in the field, so one day, just maybe you can be the star.