Where Did the Name "Ping Pong" Even Come From???

While I have been at college I have learned many new and interesting things, not only about my school work, but about myself. Tonight I learned something about myself that makes me rather sad inside. Tonight I learned what horrible, terrible, no good, very bad ping pong player I am. There are not enough words in the English language to fully express the depth of my lack of skill. I made the great mistake of agreeing to play doubles in ping pong with three hard-core crackpots (whom I love dearly). After about the 18th time of me either missing the ball completely or simply hitting so crazy that it would hit the ceiling or the wall behind the table, I realized as my teammate was glaring daggers at me, that I had never before played a "real" ping pong or "table tennis" game in my entire life. Whenever I played with my family and friends we would always make up our own rules and play anything goes. This game tonight was so structured and so competitive, it was completely unlike anything I had ever played before in my life. I had to have the rules explained to me like a little 5 year old learning to play for the first time. I must say that it was a very humbling experience. I was playing with 3 very competitive people who wanted to win very badly and wanted everything to be exactly by the book. Then there I was, little Miss Easy-Going-Whatever-Works-is-Good-for-Me and I was messing up the order of things. I was angry, I was angry at them for making me play and I was angry at myself for allowing myself to be pulled way out of my league. I don't belong in the world of serious "sports"(if you can even call ping pong a sport). I don't belong because I don't like to play by the rules, I like to make up my own. I had forgotten how competitive people can get when playing a silly little game like that. It is odd to me that they should find some much pleasure in playing by the rules and winning. God made everyone so different! My hand-eye coordination is so terrible! I can't hit a thing and if I miraculously do then it goes in the wrong direction, just ask the guy who taught my Badminton class (hehe that was a terrible terrible terrible class). Anyways, I had my pride checked tonight. The people I played with decided to quit after only one game which was very very odd for them as three games is the very least that they play in one sitting. If that doesn't help you picture how truly horrendous I am at ping pong, nothing will. I think that I am just rambling on and on because I can't decide how to end this thing. So I'm going to stop right now without a concluding thought because I want to go to bed. So here's my oh-so creative ending................THE END


The picture reminds me of what I felt like tonight, a tiny tot trying to play with the big kids.