Personal Essay                                Laura Skimins

They call it the beautiful game. Some people may say that it is a matter of opinion, but I believe that it is the best game on earth. Many people have obsessions with things like shoes and clothes, even I do, but my biggest passion would have to be football. I am obsessed with it. It doesn’t matter who is playing, I always have an interest in it, whether it would be my little brother’s team to Real Madrid. Yet, this passion didn’t develop until I was over my ‘tomboy’ phase. Which seems strange as many see me as being a girly girl now. When people say that women only watch football for the men, and don’t understand the game, I would say that I am an exception to that rule. Yet, some of the men a quite good looking, for example Freddie Ljungberg and David Beckham. If I were to be asked to explain the off- side rule, I would have no problem telling you.

                My father has loved football for most of his life and his passion and knowledge of the game they call football, has been passed down to my two younger brother, Craig and Stewart and myself. As my dad, James, supports the blue half of the city, Rangers, you would have thought I would have followed suit. But, Stewart and myself support Celtic. My dad said that we only do this to annoy him, he may have a point, but we don’t tell him this, we say that we support the better team – which he admits they are, specially this season. I think my dislike of Rangers came about, due to what happened while coming back from Blackpool on my very first holiday. I was around 10 months old and we were travelling back from Blackpool. My dad had seen the Rangers’ team bus travelling along side ours. Of course, my dad had to make a fool of himself and wave to them like a loony. Some of the players had seen me on my mothers lap and stopped playing their game of cards, just to started making faces at me. I just burst out crying, but it could also be due to that fact that I may have just woken up. I believe that this incident was traumatic and even now I can’t even look at Ally McCoist on the television without remembering that face he had pulled at me. My two little brothers, Craig and Stewart have to share a room, and went it was getting painted they couldn’t or wouldn’t decide what colour to paint it. So, my dad took the decision to paint one half green and the other blue. I think that this is a little extreme. Yet, there is more to come, on the green side Stewart’s side as it is also known as, is covered with Celtic posters, with the blue half, or Craig’s side, full of Rangers posters. Everyone who come and visit our house and looks at their room, just laugh as they can’t believe it, and most of my friends say it’s a little weird. But, I just I am used to it. My dad also gets into the act of having football things on the wall. In our upstairs hallway, directly in front of my room, there is a big picture of Ibrox stadium. I’m sick to death at seeing it every morning as I wake up. At this present moment my mother and myself are tiring to hatch a plan to try and get rid of it, even though my mum brought it as a present for my dads birthday. But I think my dad suspects we are doing something about the picture. Moreover, because our family is divided in the sense of football, it causes many arguments around the dinner table.  Such as when Stewart had a bet with my dad about who would win the league one season. Of course my dad lost, so he had to take him to a game at Celtic park. Knowing my dad, I knew he wouldn’t carry his side of the deal so he got my mum to take him. Yet, this isn’t the worse of it as it all came to a head last season.

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        Last season was one of the best seasons I have ever witnessed as a Celtic supporter, they were in the UEFA Cup Final, the first time in almost 33 years, Celtic had been in a major European final. They were playing a team called Porto from Portugal.  That day I was off on study leave and the next day I had an exam. I tried to do some revision, but it wasn’t happening, I could not concentrate. But you’ll be glad to know that I passed. When the night came I was so excited, we had a party with my ...

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