I’m not much for writing diary-like blogs because I’m rather attached to my impersonal writing style, but I thought I’d switch it up this week and share a little recap of my Saturday. TLDR: a 13-hour badminton tournament. 

6:00am: Was probably a little too curt in asking my Echo Dot to shut off the alarm – sorry Alexa!

6:30am: One of my teammates picked me up and we drove over to the Dunkin’ Donuts on Ogden as per our usual pre-Saturday-tournament tradition: a small vanilla iced latte & hash browns. As luck would have it, we just so happened to hit every single red light within the 1.3-mile vicinity.

6:57am: Arrived at North – theoretically early, but technically 7 minutes late, since our Remind message had told us to get there by 6:50am sharp – oops. 

7:00am: By some miracle, everyone on the team made it onto the bus on time – a first, and undoubtedly also a last – and we embark on our 57-minute bus ride to New Trier.

7:51am: We enter New Trier territory, oohing and ahing at the enormous mansions lining the streets of downtown Winnetka. 

8:00am: A 10-minute self-guided tour of the school, since the security guard (!!) at the school’s entrance mislead us in telling us where the gyms were located.

8:11am: We arrive at the gym, which is marginally smaller than we expected. A team field trip to the bathroom ends in widespread disappointment – it’s small and dinky, a stark contrast from the rest of the school. 

8:44am: The New Trier badminton coach starts explaining the rules of the tournament. The moment he opens with “This tournament will be nothing like any other tournament you’ve ever been to”, everyone on the team exchanges knowing glances with each other. Even after his 21-minute spiel, still absolutely no one – including the coaches – understands how the tournament works. 

9:07am: Our first round of games begins. Meanwhile, our coach goes to talk to the Evil Orchestrator (aka, New Trier coach) to see if she can figure out what’s going on.

9:53am: We finish our first games, and our coach fills us in on the tournament details. As a conglomeration of round-robins, single-eliminations, and pools, the tournament is unfathomably disorganized. Our coach joking predicts that, at the rate games have been going, we won’t be back in Naperville until 6pm. We all casually laugh it off. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t a joke.

12:18pm: Three rounds in, and at least four more to go. Everyone on the team is hunched over their phones, frantically cancelling any plans we had made for the afternoon. 

2:34pm: We move to another gym within the school, this one somehow even stuffier than the last one. As a saving grace, we find a hallway with windows that have been cracked slightly open. The whole team files out to relish the tiny slivers of fresh air; we sit there for at least half an hour, complaining about the rapidly deteriorating status of our Saturday. 

3:13pm: Even more games. We’re practically running on fumes. 

6:04pm: At this point, the only teams left in the gym are the two who have qualified for the championship round: us and A-School-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Even the New Trier team – the host school – has left. 

6:46pm: The championship round ends, and we (finally) say goodbye to the Evil Orchestrator, putting up a facade of amicability while internalizing cursing him for stealing away the past twelve hours of our lives. 

6:57pm: We climb aboard our bus and profusely apologize to our bus driver for the tournament ending an extra five hours later than anticipated. We sincerely hope he gets paid hourly wages and not per trip. 

7:01pm: Driving back past the fancy real estate, catching glimpses of Lake Michigan through the windows of the houses. We beg our coach to let us stop by the beach, even if it’s for just a second.

7:06pm: The bus turns down a gravel path that leads down to the beach. Everyone shrieks out of joy, and we all book it to the shoreline the second we’re parked. The happiest 22 minutes of my life.

8:34pm: As we pull back into North, our rendition of the Fight Song is undeniably lackluster, a direct reflection of how burnt out the past thirteen hours have left us. We share one last team hug, and after having spent a borderline unhealthy amount of time together, part ways for the night.