When I had been in Australia for about a month or so, I was introduced to a popular Australian sport that I had never really known existed before now: squash. And no, it is not the same as racquet ball (avid squash players will actually take offense to this assumption as racquet ball is completely different). After volunteering at the local squash club and helping with anything that the supervisors needed done, I became increasingly familiar with the rules of the games and began to understand the appeal of watching the game, which at first I had found to be incredibly boring. This increase in excitement and appreciation for the game most likely stemmed from the fact that I finally got up the nerve to lace up my sneakers, grab a racket, and try the game out, and it was hard. The sport requires a lot of stamina, hand-eye coordination, explosive movements, and effort, all of which I clearly needed to work on after my initial squash stint (spoiler alert, I still needed work after my second time playing as well). Now I’ve made the squash court a major location in my weekly schedule, as I volunteer there a couple of times a week and help out with the in house and between district competitions. It has really allowed me to feel a bit more integrated into the Australian sports culture, and subsequently a bit of Australian culture as well.
