Welcome to my little Fairytale
Our Story
Not all fairytales begin in a hot warehouse, playing hardcore dodgeball in the thick, smoldering heat of summer —– but ours is no ordinary fairytale. It turns out you can duck, dip and dive from a ball, but you can’t dodge love.
John was a dodgeball veteran and host of the league. I was the new girl on the court. My long-time friend and her then-boyfriend, who happed to be John’s cousin, had convinced me to play dodgeball in the back of a paper and packaging warehouse. Sounds normal, right?
I didn’t know what to expect from that description. I showed up around 7p.m. through the back side door of a huge (kinda sketchy-looking) warehouse and walked towards the shining overhead lights where I found two dodgeball courts nestled in between a wall of towering wrapped paper rolls stacked 20 feet high. “What the hell am I walking into?,” I thought, as I passed nearly a hundred players lined up around the paper-wall perimeter, sweating, laughing and taking sips of Gatorade. The sharp squeak of sneakers created its own chaotic rhythm.
It was quite the underground sport I’d stumbled upon; a sort of Fight Club — only we were hurling balls instead of fists; but still sporting bruises, sometimes even fractures. I ended up with much more than I could have ever expected from the backroom sport. I’d joined a team, and after a few seasons, I actually became pretty good; traveling to compete in tournaments around the Tri-State area and even a woman’s tournament in Montreal, Canada. As it turns out, Factory Dodgeball became a big part of my life, and eventually, so did John. I’d never imagined falling in love with the game, let alone the man who put it all together and his two little boys.
John, a natural leader, always had a clipboard in his hand and was setting up the roster for round-robins. Most of my early memories of John (aside from the ones where he was always getting me out during the game, ugh) include him in basketball shorts, wearing bright blue knee pads, eyes fixed towards his notebook, as he furiously scribbled names with his left hand. So focused on the task, he never looked up as I passed. See, the thing about John is that everything he does, he does with his whole heart. And despite how goofy our dodgeball games were, they were no exception. That dedication and commitment to putting something together for his friends was one of the first things I’d noticed about him, and now one of my favorite of his qualities — his incredible ability to bring people together.
He was so focused on setting up teams or reffing games, that now we laugh about how he never even really paid me any attention. It wasn’t after until nearly a year of playing that we actually had a conversation one night out after a championship game with our whole league when we realized we had the same taste in everything: humor, movies, music, books. It should be stated that our taste is quite uncommon — when you find someone who also sings along to bands like The Clash and Bouncing Souls, has a love for Vonnegut, a slight obsession with Twin Peaks, and doesn’t snicker when you quote Captain Picard or Agent Mulder, but instead finds it cute and endearing — it is quite a match.
Later, when I really got to know John, I’d discovered that his life was kind of a mess. He was going through a bitter divorce and was exhausted from trying to keep his life together, care for his business and still spend time with his kids every day. It was during this time that I noticed my feelings for John kind of snuck up on me and bubbled over like a fizzy glass of champagne about to overflow, filling me with a buzzy warmth. Eventually, when I told John my feelings, he thought I was crazy for it. Actually, he tried to deter me completely from pursuing him. He realized his messy life didn’t paint him as Prince Charming. But sometimes life gets messy, and when it does, you can find authenticity that only comes with adversity. And if there’s one unanimous thing everyone agrees with about John, it’s that he’s very real; good or bad.
“You don’t want any part of this,” I recall hearing him say, laughing, but I didn’t really listen. And years later, I’m glad I didn’t.
Together, we went on to compete in regional level tournaments, becoming teammates, friends, husband and wife — and now, even business and creative partners. Quite the plot twist in the grand story of my little life — saying “yes” to a Wednesday night out at dodgeball turned into me saying “I do,” about seven years later. Dodgeball turned me into a wife and a step-mom of two incredible young boys, who teach me new things about the world, joy, and love each day. Truly, it changed my life in every way possible. And man, am I grateful.
A sport changed my whole world. Life is crazy, isn’t it?
Our little family. Photo by Hayden Trace.