I’m the worst player on my social sports team. Why does it feel so good to be bad at something?

There are joys in finding an activity you’re drawn to but not necessarily naturally good at, and sticking with it anyway

• Tell us: have you fallen in love this year?

All my life I’ve been bad at sports. At school I was always successfully “sick” on the annual sports day and had a standing note from my equally averse mother to excuse me from physical education classes due to my “bad foot”. Even after I started exercising regularly in my mid-20s, I never joined my friends’ social netball or football teams.

“Hating sports” was core to my identity. Then, last year, a friend invited me to her birthday “kickabout” – a casual game of football, I gathered. (I believe some call it soccer.) Had we been less close, I might have made my excuses. Instead I turned up to the park, determined to keep as far away from the ball as possible.