Making the Right Mistake

Did you ever make a mistake? Of course you did. We all do, but have you ever noticed the difference between the mistakes you make and those that others make? You see, when we make mistakes, we usually consider it as an ‘unavoidable’ or ‘honest’ mistake, but when someone else does the same thing, we tend to think it as an ‘inexcusable’ or ‘stupid’ mistake. Isn’t that odd?
Just yesterday, I had a football match with FAST University Islamabad which turned out to be an excruciating battle for both FAST and the LSE football team.

Like every other match, my team members and I just had one thing on our minds- to relax and play with zest and zeal so that the journey to gain victory becomes an enjoyable one. The referee's whistle came and we had the ball. The opponent team pushed us back and was desperately trying to defend our fierce attack. One of our strikers had almost made the ball through and was about to make the final hit when one of the FAST girls fouled by elbowing our player and causing her to her fall and miss the shoot. To our dismay, we weren’t given a free kick.

We carried on with the match without making a fuss but in the course of it, realized that the opponent team was taking advantage of our easygoing nature. Whenever we were in our attack mode, they started to pull us back, curse and made us fall to the ground. Good for them, the whistle blew and it was half time so we hurried to renew our strategy.

As the second half started, we had our first threatening attack which again was followed by more horrendous fouls and this time around, the other team members actually got their way with the ball and were racing to attack us. I being the defender had to be like a shadow and mark my player at all times. I tackled the player of the opponent team and had the possession of the ball. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my ankle- a FAST striker fouled me bad which was carried by verbal abuses and ended up in a physical fight and me being showed a yellow card.

This outburst increased the rage in my team members against those in the opposite team and then we also decided to play dirty for the remaining match and show them our real potential. It didn’t take us long to score our first goal of the day and we ended the match with a 2-0 victory.

I thought I was mistaken, but I was mistaken in being mistaken because I knew this is what those girls deserved. In my heart, I know that being physically abusive is wrong but the point is to make the other person realize that karma needs no invitation and can step in the scene whenever it feels that the wrongdoer needs to be corrected. Yesterday, maybe karma taught them a lesson through me as I got the honour to hear an apology from the opponent team after the match.

Posted in: Posted by Raeesa Mir