Kingdom: 20 x 44

Picture a 20 x 44 yard rectangle. Two parallel lines one meter and four and a half inches inside the twenty yards. Got it? That’s a badminton court, my kingdom. I rule it when I am there.

Badminton courts vary from size to size, but the one which will be forever imprinted in my mind is located in United World College (UWC), Singapore.

The first memory of badminton goes a long way back in my childhood. The only image that I recall is the way I used to bore Bhai by making him play with me; a school pro playing with someone who wasn’t familiar with serving properly. After everyone was gone, I would stay back and serve from the end line of one court to the other side. I had to learn how to serve well, after all, that’s the only way to earn a point.

Days, weeks, and months flew by as I learned how to master a badminton serve. Hold the shuttle lightly in your hand; just let it sit there. Then scoop the racket from the back of your head over your right shoulder and make sure the shuttle makes contact with the middle of the racket. But the main trick is in the power; you have to get all the power from your legs.

Finally after a few months of blood and sweat, I started to play well. My school, Ruamrudee International School (RIS), had two badminton teams for boys and girls, Junior Varsity and Varsity teams. I could only dream of playing in the Junior Varsity Girls Badminton team at that time. There was a lot of competition. Out of 50 students, only 16 were chosen. Tried out in 6^th grade. I got through the first cut, but couldn’t make it after that. As a result, I spent more and more hours on the court. Tried out again the next year. And finally I made it. My first dream came true. Now I planned the impossible for myself. I wanted to get into the Varsity Girls Badminton team when I was in 9^th grade.

It’s not a part of the school’s tradition to have many freshmen (9^th graders) in the varsity teams. I was told by my brother and friends not to expect too much. Tried out for varsity. I got through the second and third cuts. Made it to the team.

“This is it,” I told myself.

I didn’t expect more than this. This was all I had ever played for. But someone up above didn’t think so.

There is a major tournament at the end of the badminton season, South East Asian Student’s Activity Conference (SEASAC), and the top five boys and girls get to go and play. That year it was held at UWC, Singapore. I was in 9th grade, and was ranked fifth seed. The world can turn into one big fantasy for a 15-year-old girl to play a tournament played by the pros of the school.

I remember the size of the courts were bigger than the ones we played at in our school. Generally it’s hard to notice the difference, but for me it meant a bigger kingdom. The lines weren’t the ordinary black lines instead they were red lines. The hall had a capacity of holding 8 badminton matches simultaneously. It was pretty cold in the hall. Lunch was served by the school; not that bad, really. By the end of the tournament I won all my matches, and even bagged the mixed doubles championship. What a journey. This was just the beginning.

The most interesting matches I played there, surprisingly, were the mixed doubles matches. Coincidently, I was teamed with a boy form the New International School of Thailand (NIST). The finals of the mixed doubles was between the 2nd seed of the UWC girls team and the 2nd seed of the Jakarta International School (JIS) boys team against my partner and me both rookies ranking 5th. The final scores read 15-9, 17-15, 17-15 favoring us. This was the match that created the most amount of noise by the audience and resulted in dividing the audience into two equal parts, one consisting of players from Bangkok and the other with players from Singapore and Jakarta.

I had never felt that cautious before. All the eyes were constantly set on our smallest moves. Suggestions were screamed by each member of the both the teams while we walked back to serve.

Each serve, return, and shot cheered like a Wimbledon finals. The excitement and adrenaline was flowing everywhere.

It takes a long time to get something right, to get it just the way you want. Ask me, I know.