My son and I went to our first NHL game together. I had not realized how important this was to him until I said “hey wanna go to this game with me?”( Prior to now he had always gone with his dad. Mostly cause his younger brother preferred me at home with him and it just all made sense.) And he spent the next half hour singing “I’m going to a fuckin’ hockey game with my mom.”
I went to my first NHL game with my dad when I was 21. It was the Flames vs Canucks and the result of a silly bet I had with my boyfriend at the time. I told him my dad could get tickets to a game faster then his dad. Yep, I won and my dad and I went to the game. I love that I had the kind of dad that would totally do that for me even when I was all grown up and living out of his house. I found it fitting then that the flames would be playing in the game my son and I were going to as we shared out first NHL experience together.
This game was different. As mentioned above I was a young adult at my first game (and the subsequent 2 games). And really still wearing that sort of mask that let’s the outside world see one way of you being that’s not always matched up with the heart space being on the inside. So I acted all cool. The OMG’s and Wow this is insane all stayed in my head. None of them came out my mouth. Okay perhaps a few escaped in my widespread ear to ear grin.
With my son I was a kid again. A mouth gaping wide open awe inspired fully excited can’t believe I am here kid. I kept grabbing his arm and saying “OMG, those are the guys we watch on TV all the time. Right there in the same building as us.” Now this was my son’s 6th NHL game in the passed two years (the benefit of living near the Shark Tank) so he was maybe a little less enthused then me. He played along though.
There is such magic in being able to be fully overcome by the grandness of an event in your life. To just fully breath in all of the wow and share it out loud with the people around you. I think it’s easy to mask it all. And in masking it all truly forget how fabulous life is. How marvelous the adventure can be if you are willing to witness and celebrate even the tiniest of wonders.
So, though I went to an NHL game with my son for the first time ever. I was reminded that it’s way more fun to fully embrace an event with child like amazement then it is to hide behind the mask of societal expectations.
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