Feature

Realizing the Spirit

Rubaiya Murshed

A field bordered by 50-year-old greenery, hundreds of students in colourful costumes occupying most of the space in the field, with their parents happily viewing the drill from one side. Everyone's eyes were on the honourable principal sister Marian Teresa giving her speech at the end of a long successful sports day. She was pointing out an event of a day; with her words ringing in our ears we pictured the scene.

She talks about the relay race- one of the participants falls down in the middle of the race. Her competitors race far ahead of her but that doesn't stop her. She gets up and keeps on running for her team. She knows she is going to come last but that doesn't stop her.

With the slogan 'Play for enjoyment, not for victory' in our hearts, the annual sports day of Holy Cross College 2009 has left us with a memory of it being so much more than just a sports day. We learnt a lot and we will forever keep the memories of this day along with us wherever we go.

Health and fitness are the two most important but very neglected things in our lives. The fact is that we students, be it for our social system or education system, don't get the chance to even try and keep ourselves healthy and fit through sports and games. It is ironic and funny how we have all been writing essays from class five about physical education and the importance of games. But how many of us actually learnt what we studied and applied it in real life?

What do I say? I'm one of those people too! We're all happily neglecting one of the single most important things in our life. I used to believe that I would never find an exception in this case anywhere. But I am extremely glad and relieved to say that I was mistaken. Currently studying as a first year college student at Holy Cross, I recently had the opportunity like my friends and classmates to experience a true sports day. Truth be told, the effects of this sports day will last much longer than anyone can imagine. These steps are the steps we are taking in creating a better, healthier future for ourselves. What we are doing now, will assure the type of women we become when we grow up. Forming something good is a long process; great things don't happen overnight and knowing this the teachers of Holy Cross College for 46 years have been running the students through the same methods of preparation.

Frankly speaking, it was not an ordinary sports day. It was so different from what we would usually acknowledge as a traditional sports day. It was the much awaited day of a 7 month long process of playing different games like Baseball, Volleyball, Handball etc along with the three legged races, collecting things race, sprints etc. We were the participators of the 46th annual sports day of Holy Cross College, which was held on 14 February 2009.

The program was actually held in two shifts. Half of the students had a sports day from 8-11.30 am and the other half enjoyed their chances at 1.30-5 in the afternoon.

The program started with our beloved Rina Dash miss's greetings and the disciplined march pass of 700 students. The fun fact of the whole event was that, whatever the students did, they did for their teams, with the aim of making themselves victorious. Trojans and Spartans- the two legendary kingdoms of Greek history, all the students of Holy Cross College belong to one of these two groups and all year round they face each other in competitions for the utmost glory. After different 'battles' (competitions), all the glory is handed over to the victorious team on the final day of war- the sports day. The spirit, the teamwork, the discipline, the fun, the togetherness, the cheering and the dedication is explored by every participating student through these fun, exciting moments. I will never forget the laughter in the practices, the part where we all danced together, my running around with umbrellas. Especially for me, coming away from a place I love; I must admit that I was lucky enough to find so many things I will cherish forever.

Each of the performing nine groups put up an awesome show and proved that with a little effort anything is possible. Unique in their own ways, the girls of Holy Cross college demonstrated beautiful teamwork through performing each of their musical displays. Through the process the students brought out beautiful meaningful themes too, like unity and patriotism.One thing we can proudly say that- we all pleasantly awed everybody! The day came to an end with the prize giving ceremony. On behalf of all the students, I would like to thank our dear teachers and sisters, our dadas and didis and the authority for giving us the opportunity to have such a wonderful experience. Truly, the spirit of the day will never die and the fun will live on forever!!!