One Disc Therapy

Last week, Wednesday I believe it was, I knew I would have a lot of free time and decided to make plans to play a round of disc golf (you know, wear the appropriate clothing, bring discs, etc.). I'm not sure what set my mood off that day, but I was in a really irritating mood. One of those where you're mad at everything and don't want to do anything else but sit there and be miserable.

I drove around a bit, made a stop at the Co-op and browsed through their discs and finally found myself at Willamette Park. I sat in my car for a while just staring at the expanse in front of me, contemplating whether I really felt like playing or not.

I got out of my car, and grabbed one disc from my trunk: my cool-colored star Eagle that hasn't been thrown much. I threw the disc a couple of times in the grassy area that is not the the disc golf course, kind of "practicing" my mid-range throw. I decided I did want to play some of the course, maybe not a whole round, and so I proceeded to tee pad 1 (still with just my Eagle).

The first few holes were awful as far as scoring goes, and I remember thinking "I probably should stop throwing right now, I'm only going to create bad habits," but I kept playing. It felt really good to release some of that bad energy I was storing up inside me.

Somewhere around hole 4 or 5 I started feeling happier and thus playing a little better. It is also at about this point in the course where some of the switch-backing begins and the fairways mesh between holes. I threw a drive on 5 with my lovely Eagle, not a great drive, but not a terrible drive either. The guy playing in front of me with his bag full of discs (he didn't have quad straps, so I guess not that hard core) complimented my good form. I'm pretty sure he thought he was just complimenting a newbie-one-discer, but it could have had to do with me being female. I suppose he could have just been complimenting my good form because it was good form.

A couple of holes after that a group of 3 were waiting at the tee to let me play through. They were all pretty inexperienced, (or just didn't throw far) and were just out for an enjoyable time with each other.

I teed off in front of them, secretly wanting to be impressive, and I threw a good drive. They joked around about trying to make me nervous and how it seemed to have no effect. I guess I did impress them.

The rest of the round went ok, I had some really great holes, and some not-so-great. By the end of the round I was happy and thinking about my disc golf game, not what was annoying me before.

I finished my one disc round and grabbed my putters so I could keep goofing around. A group of about 4 college-aged boys (probably freshman, I mistook them for high schoolers) were getting ready to tee off on 1. They asked me I was going to play alone and invited me to join them and offer any tips because they are all new. I wasn't about to attempt a round with my 2 putters, so I went and got my bag - that really impressed them!

I played an enjoyable few holes with them, they were really easy to impress. They thought it was cool that I even knew someone who has over 200 discs or that I knew someone who has thrown an ace.

So what started out as an outlet for me to get into a better mood, turned out to be a sneaky way to fish for compliments and feel really good about something. If you ever see me in a bad mood, tell me to try one disc therapy.