Name Game

You know, it's really kinda funny how many people can have the same name as you. I think I saw something on Josh's page or somewhere that had a website that would list the number of people that had your same name. However, in it's database, I didn't find anyone with the same last name as me. I know that this is not a fact, since if I do a Facebook search to see how many people have the name Travaglini, I get a fair number of matches. Of course, the only one that I know is my brother, and all the rest seem to live in places that are nowhere near here that I didn't know we even had any relatives at.

After doing this at some point, I also decided to do a Google search to see what would turn up, just for the fun of it. Now that I've got this blog thing, it's actually the first link that comes up when I search for my name. Next, I actually just learned that I got my name on a journal article published in the Journal of Electron Microscopy on the 29th of March this year. That comes as quite a surprise. I should probably read it at some point and see why I got my name on that. Then there are some articles from the Oak Ridger (local town paper) regarding either piano or soccer stuff. It's kinda funny to go back and read some of the articles about the soccer games that I played in during my high school years. I actually scored a few goals during that time which I certainly don't remember. It's also interesting to see the articles on the piano concerts to see what other people thought about them. It seems like so long ago reading those things...

Speaking of high school soccer, one of my favorite memories probably isn't even something that would really seem like it was all that memorable. It was what would turn out to be the last competitive soccer I would play in my career. We were playing Bearden High School in the region semi-finals. I had been injured rather frequently throughout the season with various pulled muscles and ankle problems and had been having trouble maintaining my starting position since by the time I had made my way back in, I would get hurt and fall back down the line again. It was rather disappointing since during this year my brother was starting as our team sweeper as a freshman. By the time this last game had come along I had made my way back in to the starting line-up, and I got to play a meaningful game on the same team as my brother. During the season, I had been hurt for a number of the big games and so the ones that I had been healthy for weren't as important. This one, however, was to be able to go on to the state tournament. We came back from being down 2-0 in the second half to take a 3-2 lead with what we thought were only minutes remaining. Unfortunately, the gay referee managed to somehow add on 10 minutes of extra time, during which Bearden scored to tie the game and take it to extra time.

As soon as extra time started, they broke down the field. I chased my man and my brother made a hard tackle on him to get the ball out. The guy jumps up off the ground and squares up to my brother, and starts spouting off some expletives seeing as how he just got owned by a freshman. He was about 5 inches taller than me, and I was about 4 inches taller than my brother at the time. Now, Dustin is no push-over, and he stared the guy down. I stepped up next to Dustin and we both just looked at him until he quit ranting and walked away. It was a good feeling, being able to stand up to someone with Dustin next to me. Then again, that's what brother's are for, isn't it? Standing up to the enemy and making them rant and rave and in the end realize there is nothing they can do but walk away.

So who has your name? Is it just your family? Is it your friends at school and work? Is it people from church? Is it the nameless person that always gets picked on? Who is willing to step up next to you when the enemy is staring you down and take a stand next to you? More importantly, who are you willing to stand up for?