Genuinely Giancarlo

Yesterday, I had the chance to watch my school's basketball team take on the Copper Hills Grizzlies (an all-too-familiar foe) in the Utah 5A state championship game. It was an exciting game, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The best part was when the final buzzer sounded, and it was truly official: We were state champions! And it was sweet! As a school, we were just so pumped and so happy and, for a minute, the cliques dissolved and we became what we should always be: a family. We were so overrun with joy and thrilled with the electricity of victory that we didn't care about social circles. For that moment, we were all friends, and it's a moment I will try to never forget. So yeah, you could say I was pretty happy. But yesterday, I discovered that along with utmost jubilation comes the inevitable heartbreak. While we were celebrating the win, the students and the players at Copper Hills were feeling the depths of frustration and sorrow and sadness and everything el...

Tonight, I will be present at Copper Hills High School when the Grizzlies take on the West Jordan Jaguars in the final game of their regular football seasons. West Jordan and Copper Hills are the two high schools in the city of West Jordan, and are "rival" schools - always competing for supremacy in "Dub Town". Any event in competition between the two schools is certain to hold a slightly more special meaning to the athletes competing and the spectators watching, and a win of one over the other is just a little more special than a normal win. And that's all fun and everything. Something that makes a game more exciting is always welcome. But sometimes, the rivalry went too far. I used to attend West Jordan High, and I admit that there was a point in my life when I got caught up in the theatrics of it all and I had developed a weird sort of hostility towards Copper Hills. I didn't have any desire to associate with any kids from Copper Hills, unless I alrea...