Well, as we all know, I’m staying up until 4:00 am to watch the Cubs game tonight, so I might as well be getting some work done. Growing up in Chicago, being a Cubs fan is just about as much of my identity as being a white female. So I’m going to take some time to write about what being a Cubs fan has taught me.
My family & I at Wrigley Field, April 2014
First and Foremost, being a Cubs fan has taught me that defeat is inevitable. Losing is a part of life and an important one at that. No one likes to lose, but it takes a true fan to stick with a team after 100+ years of seemingly hopeless baseball. Everyone knows that life is filled with ups and downs and I’ve come to realize that your strength is not about how many more ups you have than downs but how you handle the downs when they occur. Of course, you’ll be disappointed, like I said no one likes to lose. However, with defeat there comes room for hope. And that is one of the many ways that strength can be tested, by how hopeful someone is despite all outs. Season after season, we sit at Wrigley, hoping for our prayers to be answered, hoping for a chance to show what a true fan looks like. This insane hope, is most definitely a trait I possess. Where others would be beaten down by the struggles of daily life, I have learned to find energy and motivation to look to the future. In travel, much like in the friendly confines, you must carry on with this strange understanding that anything can happen. People will think your crazy, for putting up with the stress and defeat of trying to get around a city where no one speaks your language. You don’t know what will happen, some days will be good, and some days will be horrible. However to keep going, you must think of the good days, and more importantly the better days yet to come.
In Chicago, for the most part you have 2 types of people, Cubs fans and Sox Fans (all under one umbrella, Blackhawks fans). I know plenty of Sox fans, and they’re great people, don’t get me wrong. However there’s a world of difference from walking through the friendly confines vs. walking into the Cell. At the Cell, you came to watch baseball, and you came to watch the Sox win. You want fireworks and hype, that’s what makes it a good game. At Wrigley, that’s most certainly not the case. You go for the game, but just as much you go for the people and the atmosphere. There’s something homey about settling into your seats at Wrigley, wanting the Cubbies to win, but knowing that even if they don’t it’s still going to be a wonderful day. And this is where I learned the importance of community. When this view of strong and understanding community is applied to travel and my time abroad I think how it is living in a house with 8 others who I wouldn’t be living with in any other circumstance. The ability to make a house a home, lies in many ways, in the attitude of those living there. There are people who came here, for the wins, for the fireworks and the hype. Then there are those who came for the real experience of studying and living in another country. It’s unrealistic to say that everyday will be perfect and why would you want it that way? If everything was perfect all the time, we would have no sense of overcoming barriers. The bonds that are created at Wrigley over both wins and lose are what make up the friendly confines. You don’t need everyday to be sunny; you just have to hope there’s someone at the game who will share their umbrella with you.
I’ll admit, I’m usually a band wagoner. In 2013, I watched maybe 3 games of the Stanley Cup, bought a T shirt and went to the Blackhawks parade simply because my friends were going. However, with the Cubs its different, they’re the only team I’ve followed and loved all my life. Throughout this season, the cubs have taught me how to be proud without being arrogant. It’s something that is difficult in this day and age. How at 20 years old, can I talk about myself and my accomplishments without bragging? It’s a question I ask myself, nearly everyday as I’m relaying my daily adventures to my friends back home. I want to convey the stresses of traveling and planning when all they (understandably) hear is the fact that I get to spend a week in Spain. The Cubs are proud to be where they are today, we know we’re the underdogs; we’ve never denied that fact. And maybe that’s why everyone else is so proud too, because they all know how the Cubs have struggled. But just people others from back home don’t always understand what I could be going through here doesn’t mean I can’t be proud of the victories I’m accomplishing. There’s a certain pride that comes with leaving Cambridge and ending up hours later in Barcelona at the hostel, no matter how many times you didn’t think it would happen. That pride is something that has helped me a lot this semester. Whenever it feels like too much, or like I can’t do it, I think about the hope I’ve learned from the cubbies, or the community I have backing me up every step of the way and I find the strength within myself to carry on because I know that the risk will be worth the reward.
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