Was I not meant to grow out of this?

Do you know what I wanted for pretty much every birthday, Easter and Christmas?

Jerseys from my favourite sports teams and players.

For my 9th birthday, I was desperate for a Croatian football jersey. The red and whiter checkers had been on my mind for months and when I made it clear to my parents that was what I wanted, my poor dad went on a wild goose chase around Melbourne to help make my birthday wish come true. To add to the excitement, my mum's aunty in Croatia sent me a full Croatia tracksuit.

I was living the dream.

Sport has always been a huge part of my life. Sometimes, I feel like a complete broken record saying it. Ever since I was little, I was kicking around a football or swinging a baseball bat. Once I got to school, I was a major tomboy and always hanging around with the other boys playing AFL, cricket and football (or whatever other game they played).

My family were never the sort to pass down their love of a team from one generation to the next. Whilst many of my friends had no choice but to support certain teams for the sake of carrying on family tradition, I had a little bit more freedom. Perhaps at times, a little too much freedom when I jumped ship from Arsenal to rival team, Tottenham Hotspurs completely naive to the rivalry between the clubs but desperate to follow any team with a Croatian playing for them, and then back to Arsenal again.

Not my most credible moment, but hey- we all live and learn and that's a pretty minor thing to learn in the grand scheme of things.

For what it's worth, I'm not a proper Gunners fan and I'm absolutely revelling in this season's start.

When someone asked me which team I supported in football, I always asked: "which league?". I would recite moments in games and rewatch the Croatia v England Euro 2008 qualifying game about 4506 times.

With my love of sport (whether football, basketball, tennis, AFL, rugby or anything else), came some sentiment from those around me saying that I'd grow out of it.

As a 16 year old who wore New Jersey Nets #3 jerseys with a Celtics snapback, I couldn't possibly picture myself living a life where I wouldn't be doing the same.

As a 25 year old, I can safely say the snapbacks have been replaced by beanies & normal baseball caps, but the love of sport is stronger than ever before.

Honestly, I thought I was meant to grow out of this love of all sports? I thought I was meant to be serious, get excited over Dyson vacuum cleaners and literally be that adult that only focuses on what's important -i.e work & raising a family.

I'll admit - I do get excited over Dyson vaccum cleaners (if you know, you know). Dyson, hit me up if you need another brand ambassador because I'm totally here for it.

But it seems that quite the opposite has happened. The older I've gotten, the more passionate I've become about sport.

Do you know what else I've noticed?

What I thought adulting was as a child compared to what I know it is as now as an actual adult are worlds a part.

I had a preconceived, perhaps 20th century-esque assumption that adulting was all grey, gloomy and serious.

But it's not.

And I choose for it to be that way because I'm clear on my values. I learnt what's possible. I knew I wanted more than the gloom so I sought it.

What I found was that it all comes down to your values.

My values include: fun, freedom, fulfilment.

If what I'm doing isn't aligned with that, then I re-route.

Do I feel guilty at times and think I've gotten it all wrong? God yeah. More times and more often than I would like to feel so.

But I realised those feelings of guilt and shame for doing what I loved (and making money from it) weren't my own feelings. They were society's feelings. They were societal and ancestral projections.

Age is not a determinant of how much fun you're allowed to have.

Just because someone else hasn't yet made their dreams a reality doesn't mean you can't.

That's their story.

You get to choose yours.

And if that means being more passionate than ever about something you loved as a kid, then that's your story.