The day of Junior Junior Olympics I realized I didn’t own anything yellow. Technically, it wasn’t required that we wear our team colors, but something about having the name “Sunshines” just compelled me to do so.
My friend Jocelyn Chen from Walnut, California, and I walked to Target and splurged $15 on matching bright yellow T-shirts, which we proudly donned 15 minutes before the official 6:45 p.m. arrival time.
At the Lakefill, we sat on the grass with the other nine members of our instructor group, Springen’s Sunshines. The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” blasted on our Bluetooth speaker. We took turns painting each other’s faces with golden stripes, and when our team bandanas came around, I tied mine around my head.
My fellow Sunshines liked my square knots and enlisted me to wrap their heads and arms, too. After all, we couldn’t have bandanas flying off and costing us victories. I already felt like a winner, and we weren’t even playing yet.
As a fan of the hit show “Squid Game,” I consider tug-of-war my favorite competitive event. Of course, this was way lower stakes. But the Sunshines desperately wanted a victory.
I told my teammates what I remembered from the show (arms by your side, feet apart, zig-zag formation), and we won both of our matches, and although we’d only been together for a week, we celebrated like we’d known each other forever.
After that, whether in fun activities, instructor meetings or casual conversations, we always radiated the same enthusiasm we had built throughout the games.
To my teammates, as our playlist song says, “You are the Sunshine(s) of my life.”
