The Unbreakable Vow

There is only one important rule in the Hardy family. This is not to say that we only have one rule, or that my siblings and I grew up as savages. We had the usual put your dishes in the dishwasher, be home by curfew, eat your vegetables (I only violated this one once or 5,000 times), and do your chores. My parents taught us to get along and that we needed to learn to laugh at ourselves or we would be missing a lot of great humor. I even found this family rules list created by my younger brother for his scout troop. Clearly our priorities are in order.

These rules are all important, but if you asked my dad what the greatest thing he's taught me is, it wouldn't be any of those. There is one important rule in the Hardy family: Never leave a sporting event early. Never.  Not when it's raining. Not when it's blizzarding. Not if it's getting dark. Not when it's too cold or too hot, not if the half time show is boring, not if you're sitting in the nosebleeds. Not if you want to leave early to avoid traffic. Not even if it's late, you have a long drive home, you forgot a jacket, and you're sopping wet because a tsunami just hit the field. It doesn't matter if you're bored or if it's already very clear who the winner of the game is. There is no asterisk next to our one family rule, and there never will be. You can NOT leave a sporting event early.

My siblings and I have all learned this the hard way. I can't count the number of games I've been to with my dad, some harder to follow the family rule than others. My dad would take me to the BYU football games, some of them being incredibly frigid. I remember sitting there on the frozen bleachers shaking in my coat. Would we leave the game early if I shook so much that I shook the rest of the fans off the bleachers? Would we leave early if my eyelids froze shut? Would we go if it snowed so much that we couldn't see the game? Would we leave early if the entire football team slipped on ice and broke their backs? Would we leave early if I died of frostbite? I didn't even have to say a word as my dad turned to me and said, "We're not leaving the game early, but I'll buy you some hot chocolate."

This is a family rule I grew to love. No matter the game, the score, or the temperature, we stayed. Sometimes it was just me and my dad, and sometimes my siblings came too, but we stayed. The rule came about because of my dad's true love of sports, and it has certainly instilled that love in me. It's also been a great way for me to spend time with members of my family. When I moved to college, I still tried to go to as many games as I could. I spent hours at games with my friends cheering on my favorite team. One football game my freshman year, the group I was with decided to leave after the third quarter because they were hungry. For a small moment I figured they had a good point. The game was late at night and the winner was clear. I then remembered that on the other side of Lavell Edwards stadium, thousands of people away, was my dad. And here were my friends, telling me they were hungry. WHO DID THEY THINK THEY WERE?! They thought they could just get up and leave with 15 minutes of football time left to go?! Didn't they know that so much could still happen? Didn't they know we needed to be there for our team?! Didn't they know the family rule?! It was then that I learned that not everyone has the same rules as my family, and this one is just a little too hard to explain sometimes. So I left. And I felt horrible.

I haven't left many games early since then, so I guess it's like father like daughter. Those who know me well are now very aware of the family rule. Last night I went to the BYU/Utah State football game with one of my very best friends, Emmie. Within the first few minutes of the game, BYU scored and the crowd was electric. It didn't take too long, however, for Utah State to catch up. Injuries were happening left and right, and it seemed like the Cougars couldn't complete a single pass. The Aggies kept making great plays, and by the fourth quarter streams of people were leaving. There was hardly anyone left sitting around us, and it was getting even colder. As another interception was thrown with BYU being already down two touchdowns, there was a pretty clear winner. A friend sitting next to us said he was leaving and offered us a ride home. Yes, it was late. It was cold. It was going to take a handful of miracles for BYU to win the game. Of course people were going to leave. Before I had time to say anything, in the truest act of friendship Emmie said, "We can't go. Rachel has this really important family rule where they can't leave the game early." 97 CHEERS FOR EMILY BUMA. If there was an award for being a really great human being, Emmie would not only be a winner, but it would also probably be named after her. She was definitely ready to go, but she knew that staying until the end was important to me. (In case you're wondering how truly great she is, let me just tell you that last week we went to the movies and bought a jumbo container of popcorn. We got a refill right before we left and as she was driving us home I accidentally tipped THE ENTIRE CONTAINER OF POPCORN ALL OVER THE PASSENGER SEAT. No, I'm not talking a couple of pieces. The container fell out of my hands and was completely empty when I picked it up. I was all of a sudden knee deep in buttery goodness, and all Emmie did was laugh. She wasn't even angry when I informed her she would smell like popcorn for the rest of her life. Yes, she's wonderful.) 

So we stayed until the very last second of the very last quarter. And even though BYU lost, I still felt a kind of happiness inside. On our way home I texted my dad and said he should be extra proud of us for staying. "I'm glad you maintained your integrity" was the reply.