Epic Fail Miss Keesh

Yesterday my ward (church congregation) organized a service project to help the Ohio Youth Special Olympics qualifiers for this year's Summer Olympics. Guess which sport we helped out?

Bowling.

Which is fine except if you are me.

I'm a TERRIBLE bowler. Granted, the last time I bowled was... 10 years ago (or longer?), so I might be much better now, but I've had no desire to bowl all these years because I was just plain awful at it. The bowling genes seriously skipped me.
I remembered the first time I bowled was for a Young Women's activity, and I think I managed to hit a double digit (between 10 and 20). I think.
The 2nd time I bowled was for another church activity, but this time I had tiny "gutter gates" on each side to prevent my ball from rolling into the gutter. I think I hit a 70- yes, that's with the help of the gutter gates. Sigh...
The 3rd and last time I bowled, there were no gutter gates to support my bowling "skills." I can't remember what my final score was but I KNOW it was super low (probably why my brain has "conveniently" wiped out that memory).
And as far as I can recall, I've never had a strike (hit all 10 pins in one bowl) or a spare (hit 9 pins, and then the last pin on the second bowl).

Little wonder I have had no desire to bowl for so long. I did step into a bowling alley once these past 10 years- it was on a date when I was at BYU, but my date and I played the arcade games rather than bowl. I had no idea why we didn't bowl (I hadn't said anything about my lack of bowling skills), but I have to admit I was rather relieved. How embarrassing would that have turned out?!

Well, yesterday I helped five special needs children and youth in their event by making sure that each of them had a fair chance to participate, and also cheering them on. Every person played 2 games (40 chances to bowl) and at the end, everyone received a ribbon.

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! The 5 competitors were adorable and held on to the very end. No one threw a tantrum or made a huge fuss when their balls rolled into the gutter. Yes, even the poor girl who had a really bad string of luck and whose balls kept going into the gutter at the last 2 yards or so- not even kidding. She was sad (who wouldn't be?) but she just steeled herself each time and kept bowling and bowling (she received a double digit score her 2nd game). Every competitor also had family and friends who acted as cheerleaders. They calmed each girl down whenever she got frustrated, and every time she hit even one pin, everyone cheered with joy. It was wonderful to be part of this positive atmosphere.

My five lovely competitors

Best of all, the competitors were friendly and I even received hugs from two of them! They were some of the sweetest and most optimistic people I know.

And guess what, they weren't bad bowlers themselves. There were a few spares and I think one strike. That's right, spares and strikes.

*facepalm* EPIC FAIL MISS KEESH.