How I see everything

Dad and I went to the Footy today and it was Crows versus Fremantle. It was also Tyson Edwards very last game after he abruptly decided to retire a fortnight ago after being dropped form the Saints game. Being a senior player, I grew up following Tyson and he was my favorite player for a while. It was sad to see him leave because it felt like a bit of my childhood was leaving. Ruccito's retired, Simon Goodwin is about to, Ben Hart retired and so many other players that I knew when I was really into the Footy about 4 years ago have all left. Soon there will be no more players that I know the numbers of or recognise on the field and I felt really sad because I loved going to the Footy and even though I still do now, it felt like as the players left, my memories of all those games went with them.


Until today I hadn't realised how much the Footy affected me, I always went to the Footy with my dad, so I loved being able to spend time with him and I remember feeling jealous of my youngest sister when she went to her first game because I always though it would be exclusively ours. I also loved how culturally different the Footy made me feel. The AFL is exclusively Australian and it is very easy to spot so many very Australian mannerisms that make up the world of the AFL. From the beer, to the pies and even how they commentate the games. I think that this post is ending up more exchange related than I first thought because my exchange trip has made me see everything that I love so much about Australia and I love it for doing so! I always dreamt of living in another country or just different state, always for a superficial reason but this exchange has opened my eyes to all the great things we have as Aussies and I couldn't be more honored to have been selected to share that with another, completely different country. Sure I'll miss the footy and Tyson Edwards, but without my trip, I don't think I would have ever realised how much all these things meant to me.


We won the game by 23 points and Tyson Edwards kicked 2 goals and had 32 disposals which was an excellent note to go out on! As he left the ground I had a tear in my eye and I swear Dad did too. I can't quite explain why it made me so emotional it just did. I guess the best comparison I could think of would be how when Micheal Jackson died everyone was sad because they had been impacted by his music, well I was impacted by the Footy.
I actually got to meet Tyson Edwards in 2004 and Ill finish off this post with a few of the pictures I got with him.(I lie, the computer won't let me)  Needless to to say Tyson was my favorite player after I got to have a tour with him :P