And so it begins...
One day as I was strolling around in downtown
Västerås, I found this weird device in the middle of the
Vasa Park (Swedish). Curious as I am I started pushing its buttons, and KAZAAM! I was a young kid again. It must have been a similar machine to the one that made
Tom Hanks older in the movie
Big, although with the opposite effect. Stunned at first of course, but after overcoming the initial shock, the first thing that came to mind was:
I’ll try to succeed where I once failed.
I’ll give it one more shot of becoming a professional hockey player.
First thing I did was stroll down to the bus terminal, and take the first bus out to
ABB Arena (Swedish) where my hometown team
Västerås IK plays. Heading straight to the office of GM
Leif Rohlin, knocking on his door:
- Come in
- Hello. My name is Daniel, and I’d like to play for you team.
- So you do… do you have any skills?
- Lend me a pair of skates, and let’s play some one-on-one.
- Sure… I’m bored of all this paperwork anyway, but you do realize that I used to be playing in the
NHL?
- Of course sir. I followed your career leading you to the
Vancouver Canucks.
- Let’s go then.
30 minutes later, totally outclassed by the ex-pro, he told me:
- You need some more practice kiddo, but you’ve got hockey in your blood for sure
- So you’ll sign me then?
- I’ll let you start in our juniors, and we’ll see what happens. I’ll tell our head coach
Johan Tornberg to keep an eye on your progress.
- Thank you sir!
After signing a 4-year-contract, I headed home, and went straight to bed, wondering if I’d still be 15 years old tomorrow…
