#23: Join a Sports Team at Work

It's hard to describe how important networking is at the company I work for.  You need to know lots of people (and the right people) to learn about possible job opportunities and help get you the "in" you need to get there.  I figure that a work sports league is a good, casual way to get to know people.  It forces me to get out there and network in a less formal way than trying to ask others about their connections and hoping you can meet people that way.

So when softball came up this spring, I was in.  Sadly, I spent a majority of our 8 week season with a chronic sinus infection that took 4 bouts of antibiotics to kill.  (Thanks a lot to Melissa's devil spawn, "Baby Lemons", for getting me sick for a month and a half.)  I only got to play 3 weeks with my team at the time so it was hard to feel welcomed when I had to join so late.  We did make playoffs so I guess it was 4 weeks.  I enjoyed the time I had to play but wish I had been there for more.

This fall, softball came up again but I discovered my team wasn't reconnecting for another season.  Luckily, I reached out to my team captain and he suggested I contact another team and see if they could use an additional player.  They're only supposed to take 15 players total but they needed another girl so here I am, player #16.  Most of the team come from a few departments I know very little about (but are in my building) so it's kind of cool to meet new people.  I didn't know any of them.  I did, however, recognize one guy in particular because I've always thought he was the best looking guy in my building.  Now he has a name and a department, which I will not state on here due to my own personal privacy policy (and protection of both him and myself from embarrassment).

We're only 2 weeks in to the season but the team has been so welcoming and fun.  We all trash talk each other and I hear every week a lot of them go out after the games to a bar and just chill together.  I'm looking forward to that because it's a new opportunity to make friends and work connections.  I'm excited for Saturdays and hope that I remain close enough to the team to play with them again next spring.  We'll see how it goes but so far, it's been more than worth the $43 entry fee and the humiliating fall over my own two feet that happened the first week...but that's a story for another time.