March Sadness

March Madness is perennially my favorite time of the year. Well, if you don't count summer or Christmas, that is. I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much; it's just a yearly indication of how easy it is for me to totally fail at something in which I thought I would surely succeed. That's a depressing way to look at it, I know, but it's true. Every year I fill out a bracket and every year I see my Final Four teams go down well before the Final Four. I make my picks based on what I saw throughout the season - I love watching college basketball. So when my friend, Chelsie McGraw, who watches exactly zero college basketball games all year, beats me in bracket challenges every single year, well, that's a little deflating. Choosing to delve a little deeper into the failing concept, could the failure of March Madness carry over into other aspects of my life? I'm going to college to be a teacher. What if, when I finally graduate and get my first teaching job, I completely fail, despite knowing what I should know to make me successful? What if it's just that I'm not supposed to be a teacher? There are things that indicate I should be a teacher (I strongly feel that education is important, I love working with children, etc.), but what if I'm just not supposed to teach? Like in the tournament - there are teams that should win - everything indicates that they will win - but don't. Or even smaller scale - failing a final. I haven't done that yet, but it could happen, right? I go to class and learn what I'm supposed to learn for the final, but I could still fail, yes? March Madness is a constant reminder that one can never be too sure of anything. For instance, I had Duke and Missouri in my Final Four. They both lost in the very first round. Who saw that coming? I also had Florida State in my Final Four. They lost in the second round. At the time, based on what I had observed throughout the season, those seemed like pretty good picks. Nothing is a given, though, especially in March Madness.

Obviously, I realize that predicting the winners of basketball games is not the same thing as being a teacher. That was a bit of a stretch as far as metaphors go, but I still stand by the "one can never be too sure" statement.

Also, I may be taking March Madness a little too seriously. Or maybe this isn't actually about March Madness. Heh. I feel like this part of the post should actually be about the tournament and my epic bracket failure, so, this:

I should've known this year's tournament would be a failure for me. I had Syracuse in the Final Four before I heard their starting center was ineligible. About ten minutes into actually having a bracket and already I had to make changes. I printed off a bracket, filled out one on ESPN.com and Yahoo.com the exact same way, and filled out three more on Facebook. Two of the three were different from the printed/ESPN/Yahoo one. It gave me the choice to fill out three so I figured I should have a couple of brackets where I pick South Dakota State to win at least one game. Those two were my "whatever" brackets where I don't much thought into my picks. I either pick teams that I like or pick random upsets. "Random" like, as I'm filling out my bracket I think, "Huh, I haven't picked an upset in a while...13 over a 4? Well, okay." Sadly, both of my "whatever" brackets are better than my real bracket. Like I said before, I had Duke and Missouri in my Final Four. I should've known better with Duke - they usually choke. Missouri? I still am baffled. Florida State. That was a questionable pick. I got caught up in the hype of them beating Duke and UNC twice in the same year. Speaking of UNC, they're my last Final Four team. They better make it, too, because they're also my champions. Oh, wait, they're point guard broke his wrist and they just needed overtime to beat Ohio. Not Ohio State, just regular ol' Ohio. But what do I care? My bracket was busted by day two. Oh well. I fail at this every year, but I keep on living my life, and I'll try again next year. I feel like, given how cynical the first part of this post was, there should be a moral to this (you know, to throw everyone off the emo trail). Life is going to throw you things you didn't expect or see coming - that's inevitable. All you can do is accept it, embrace the failure it may have brought, improve, and do better with your next chance. Next chances aren't inevitable, though, so if you get one, make it count.

¡Aye! This seriousness is too much. This is a little ditty about March Madness. Just replace "Sparta" with "Florida" because they're my replacement pick in place of Missouri for the Final Four.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDRAhiBtOrQ