All three teams excluded me today for obvious reasons, citing “we have 7 players already” (when the team only had 6) or “someone is coming.” Clearly, a retaliatory response to my previous comment. Then later, they were making fun of my complaint by saying things like “did you get tired being a bully?” and then laughing. And Big City has done absolutely nothing to address my concerns. Bullying isn’t funny. Ageism isn’t funny. Getting excluded in retaliation to a complaint of discrimination isn’t funny. But apparently Big City thinks otherwise.

Felt like too much time spent on warmups

Older players are always rejected by teams made up of immature, overconfident players. So older players always end up playing together. Bullies: volleyball open play version. Often, this is justified by merely calling these players as “clicky.” This has been going on for a long time and it’s time for Big City to do something about it. Or maybe we should all just be kind to one another and stop excluding people who don’t look like us? That’s not a novel idea in 2023 in NYC.

so fun!