名稱：when one friend makes the team
內容簡介：
Dear Arizona,
　　My best friend and I are in chorus, and tryouts for a competitve choir are coming up. What if one of us gets in and the other doesn't? It could wreck our friendship! Should I skip the audition?
　 —Friend First in Fresno

Dear Friend First,
　　I can understand why you and your friend want to stick together. I feel pretty weird when I don’t know a single person in a new group. And it can be uncomfortable to compete with a friend. If you’d asked me a month ago, I would have said “Stick together no matter what!” But because of something that just recently happened to my friend Ollie, I’ve changed my mind.

Two or three weeks ago, I was riding my bike around my neighborhood when I saw Ollie and his friend Simon in front of Ollie’s house. “What are you guys up to?” I asked, hopping off my bike.

“Nothing,” said Ollie.

“Beyond nothing!” said Simon.

That’s when I noticed all their soccer gear sitting on the steps.

“Looks like you’re going to play soccer,” I said.

“It’s complicated,” said Ollie.

“Beyond complicated!” said Simon.

“How complicated can it be to kick a ball?” I asked. I was genuinely curious.

“We just came from soccer tryouts,” said Ollie.

“For the Select team,” added Simon.

“Ollie made the cut, and I’m a loser.”

“You are not,” said Ollie. “You played so much better than half the guys who got in!”

“At least one of us gets to play Select,” said Simon.

Ollie shook his head. “As long as I’ve played this sport, I’ve been on the same team as you. There’s no way I’m joining without you! Besides, Select has way too many early practices, and it costs almost twice as much. Plus you have to drive forever to play the other teams in the league. I’m going to stay on our same old team. That way, we can keep it like old times.”

“Yeah, like old times,” Simon said, high-fiving Ollie. “You’re a good friend, bro!”

“No problem,” said Ollie. “You’d do the same for me, right?”

“Right!” Simon agreed.

The three of us hung out for a little longer, and they both acted as if everything was fine. Then we all went our separate ways.

But even though everything seemed OK, it turned out that Ollie was just acting that way to make Simon feel better. Before long, Ollie ended up in the world’s worst mood—and he stayed in that mood for a bunch of days.

I finally had to bring it up while we were fixing a snack at my house one afternoon. “It was nice of you to offer to stay on the old team to make Simon feel better, but do you really think that was the best choice?”

“Yeah, everything’s cool now.” He shrugged.

“Really?” I said. “If everything’s cool, how come you’ve been acting like the most depressed human on the planet?”


“I don’t know,” said Ollie. “Don’t you think that a great friend should be more important than a new team?”

“You want to know what I really think?” I said. “I think that if Simon were a great friend, he’d want you to go ahead and play on that Select team and not pass up an awesome opportunity just so he could feel better. That’s what I think!”

“I guess I do kind of want to play Select,” Ollie said quietly.

It turned out that Simon really was a great friend, because just as Ollie was gathering the courage to call Simon, Simon called Ollie. He told Ollie that it would be silly for him not to move up to the next level. He said that they didn’t have to play on the same team to stay friends. They could still play pickup games in the park and eat at the same lunch table.

So, dear Friend First, I think you should go through with your audition. If you both get in—yay! If neither of you gets in—oh well. And if only one of you gets in— that’s life!

Try to remember that good friends encourage each other to be the best they can be, even if it means doing things separately sometimes. You could agree that, no matter what happens, you’ll continue to do fun stuff together. You could also agree that when it comes time to cheer each other on, you’ll each be the loudest one in the crowd!

Ciao for now,

Arizona