Improvisation and Improvement

Kingshuk Roy, Staff Writer

It is the bottom of the third quarter. The score is 30 – love. The pride of America rests on my shoulders as I clench the ball, scoping out the positions of the Chinese. There is just one problem.

How do I play basketball?

Some people think of their “big game” as their championship game or the game that knocked them out of playoffs. For me, my big game was my only game. Prior to my summer school trip to China with my Chinese class, my only exposure to basketball was through games of Lightning in gym class and marveling at classmates’ Air Jordans. Now, I am playing against one of the best Chinese high school basketball teams for a cultural exchange show match.

 

I was not the only amateur on the American roster. My team consisted of a ragtag accumulation of un-athletic Minnesotans, including a lanky drama student with Harry Potter’s facial structure, a dashing blonde teenage Casanova, an Asian-American the Chinese assumed was just a new student, and an All-American kid who was adept at soccer but hopeless at basketball. Given these circumstances, I guess one could say we were the underdogs.

That did not change my mindset. Sure, the game was lost before it even came into inception. However, this whole trip had been a once in a lifetime experience gifted to me, and I planned to make the most of it. Rather than giving the audience a stale slaughter, I decided to do what I knew best – improvise.

Throughout my life, I have had to improvise countless times. Whether it was for a last-second change of plans as my science fair project broke down a few days before the competition, or for an improvisational speech in speech class, I had adapted to whatever life hurled at me. This game would be no different. I had come into the game yearning to win something. Knowing it could not possibly be the game, I strove to win the audience.

It is still the bottom of the third quarter. As I stood there dribbling, I decided to spice it up. The basket was fifty feet away, yet that distance did not daunt me – it seduced me. My plan was to throw the ball in the air, jump and do a complete 360, catch the ball before I land, and then throw the ball in the general direction of the opposing team’s basket. I may not get points for the score, but I’ll make up for it with style. And that is exactly what occurred.

            The faces of astonishment quickly morphed into wide grins. Rather than being angered by my decision to fool around, they followed suit. We all began to clown around the court. The audience loved it. The Chinese players, enthused, tossed us the ball whenever they could simply to see what we would attempt next. I made a shot and completely missed. However, that didn’t matter. What mattered was the look of confusion on the Chinese players’ faces and the roar of laughter from the crowd.

It did not matter to me that I was enveloped in a foreign environment. Rather than shying away from this new realm, I stayed true to who I was. As a result, I have become much more comfortable in foreign environments, and have been able to take on change in whatever form it comes in. The future is full of change, and I plan to embrace it.