Pickup Soccer vs. Exclusion

One of the best aspects of pickup soccer is it allows strangers to become part of a group pretty easily:

One day during the brightening spring, I walked out onto the school yard and was invited to join in a pickup game of soccer. I nearly tripped because I ran so fast to the group of my classmates. I became a defender, vigorously protecting my portion of the field with my full body. The sting of the deflected ball on the soccer field below was pale in comparison to the agony of exclusion I had felt on the jungle gym above.

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