Meet Jessie, a 27 year old Personal Assistant in the construction industry, whose inter-regional Rounders work tournament went from thinking up excuses not to join in…to scoring a Rounder and having the best time!
My name is Jessie, I am 27 years old and work as a Personal Assistant in the construction industry. I used to be 278 lbs, I am now 178 lbs as I have undergone weight loss surgery and am on a fantastic fitness journey. At my work, one of the social events for everyone to participate in is the Inter-regional Rounders tournament. There are five regions within the company, with the region I work in being primarily male, so the tournament was a nice mixture of both men and women playing Rounders. I used to play Rounders at school and it was always my favourite sport when it came to PE time. I was always quite good at it, however was not always the best runner, I could really whack the ball, so I signed myself up for the tournament this year. Our region won and I was the only girl in the region to score a rounder – which was a good feeling!
Leading up to the tournament, I was excited for many reasons. 1) Because we got to finish work at 3pm in order to go to the cricket club to start playing. 2) I always enjoyed Rounders at my all-girls school, so I thought it may be more fun with a mixed crowd and 3) I have struggled to make friends at this work place, as colleagues do not do many social activities, so the tournament was something I had been waiting for. On the day of the tournament, I was thinking of excuses not to attend as I felt incredibly anxious. What if I dropped the ball? What if everyone laughed at me? What if I injured myself and people saw me as a liability? So many ridiculous reasons. I used to be incredibly overweight and in my head I still see myself as the overweight girl. I thought, my teammates will look at me run, they will make fun of me – I used to be bullied in school for my weight and all these emotions came flooding back that history would repeat itself… I had to keep telling myself ‘I am not at school anymore, I am an adult and am in control!’
I truly enjoy being part of a team in life; whether its sport, work, friendships or partnerships. I am a massive team player and playing Rounders as a team was fun. It was nice to be involved and nice to go into work the next day and go up to fellow teammates and share inside jokes. I felt so happy scoring a rounder. The second time batting I scored a half rounder and the third time I hit the ball but got caught out – I was only gutted the third time as I wanted to carry on playing! The literal feeling of scoring the rounder was lovely – everyone in your team screaming as you are running, my managing director screaming at me while at the third post “RUN HOME OR YOU ARE FIRED” – obviously joking, but nice to be acknowledged you know? People giving me high fives once I got to the back of the queue. It was a feeling that took me back to my school days when you would do well in sport and your peers would talk about you for a little longer. Once I got into the game it felt very comfortable. It was a very fun day, filled with laughter, jokes and a good atmosphere.
Anyone inspired by Jessie and looking to get back into Rounders can check out Team Finder. Some teams are still playing outdoors and may move indoors when it starts to get dark in the early evening.
