Have you ever seen a movie? Chances are you have (if you haven’t, you should try it). It always seems that the movie has a happy ending and everybody gets what they want, with the exception of some horror movies. I have come to expect this from movies and, in some instances, I carry this belief over into life. I can think of no better example than at team state tennis my freshman year.

The night before the state meet, hopes of winning were low but spirits were high. Of the four teams remaining in the team state competition, we were seeded the lowest. This meant we had to play the number one seed first round, Boone. We had butted heads earlier in the season with Boone in an inter-conference friendly, and had gotten waxed 9-0, not winning a single match. Even our mighty captain Aaron had been slain by the then superior John. We had gone into that meet pumped up and thirsty for blood but had left with our tails between our legs.

To make matters worse Boone had completed the double whammy at individual state, claiming the singles and doubles titles. They, without a doubt, had their eyes on the triple crown this year and expected the road to the championship to be a cakewalk. I mean, drawing us in first round, the team they had man handled just weeks before, who could blame them?

Our team showed up the morning of the competition with a strange sense of impending defeat. Boone showed up, we were announced, and the meet began. At first it was impossible to tell who was winning, but after Conrad’s and my early exits from the court it seemed likely that we would once again be gum on the shoe of Boone. But then, a strange thing began to occur, we started to win matches. It started with Aaron beating Ellis, then another victory, then another. We ended the singles portion of the competition with four wins. That meant we only needed one doubles victory to defeat our foe and move on to the championship round.

Sure enough, we got the doubles win we needed and we rejoiced in our upset of the number one seed. Who could possibly defeat us now? What team could stand against us after we had held our own against Boone? We had already begun talking about what we were going to do with the trophy when we brought it back home. Would we sleep with it? Drive it around town with the top down? Who Cares! We were coming home with a championship trophy, or so we assumed.

Then we lost to Davenport Assumption in the championship round. After over coming our greatest challenge of the season and defeating Boone, we lost to Davenport Assumption! There was not much more to say about our loss. We had the championship in our grasps and we blew it.

We had all assumed that we would have our fairy tale ending, but we got no such thing. We had thought that like in the movie we would be the underdog champion. But, as it turns out, real life isn’t like movies. If it were, no one would see movies at all because they wouldn’t be that interesting or make us feel good. So never assume that you will get the happy ending you want until you have actually accomplished it.