Hopelessly Devoted To Music

I Loved Football But I Loved Music More

So this is me I suppose. My name is Alex Clark. I'm 16 years old, I live in a town in Essex, England. You may know of Essex as being the county next door to London and all and yeah that's true when you think about it but its my home and I'm proud of it.

For the last 10 years, I've been playing football on a regular basis from training to matches for Wilderson Wanderers. A little side of whom we've all grown up playing with. However whilst all of the lads are going onto playing in senior football as of next season, I've decided against it and I won't be joining them because of a little idea I've got up my sleeve.

In an environment like mine, your allowed to like music and all as its meant to be there to coolen your pre-match moods which I get. But I've spent the last 2/3 years wishing I was up there on that stage performing instead of just being a listener.

I'm sounding crazy when I say this but my school has put on productions of shows in the last few years and I've been tempted to audition but cause I had football to attend to after my classes, I knew I couldn't commit. And not to mention the abuse I would've got off my Dad and my team mates had I decided to call it quits from football for half a season to perform in a school musical, it wouldn't have been worth it at all.

However I came to the realisation when I turned 16 a few months back that my life is for the taking when I leave school so I'm gonna be jumping in the deep end with the performing.

In all of this, I can't fault my Mum and older sister Katie enough for their support with this little passion of mine. Katie got me a guitar about 18 months ago and when I've got in from school and I've not got training to go to, she's been teaching me how to perform with it upto the extent where I can now sing songs without any real problems.

That's the ironic thing with me and music. I've got the voice and I've known that for a number of years. However if you get caught singing in the shows by your teammates, you get abuse and half the time, they film you doing it and it goes viral on Instagram or Snapchat. I wasn't ever gonna take that chance of me singing in the showers belting out to a tune from a band like Oasis or Backstreet Boys in case they found out.

The thing with football is that our season finishes in early May yet by mid-April, we find ourselves embroiled in exams until June whilst also expected to return to pre-season in that same month. Its crazy but I had to try and keep my body under wraps with what I was eating and how my fitness was going given the lads originally thought I was staying on and I hadn't said anything. That was until May 4th which was the day of our final league game.

We were due to play at 12pm against the team placed bottom of the league known as Harleston. We had already won the league however I called the lads in a few minutes early to have a chat with them.

I sat them down and said I need to have a word. They expected something encouraging or lifting like thanking them all for a good season. It wasn't that at all.

I told them that I had decided to call it quits from football after 10 years and the immediate reaction was just pure shock by them all. They thought I was joking but I had felt enough was enough for me now. I didn't tell them the plan of what I hoped to go onto doing yet but I knew in time they'd come to realise that as much as I loved football, I loved music more.