it is a pretty strange feeling, watching yourself outgrow the careers and passion of the people you've seen your entire life, who were so revered. i don't really want to pretend like messi has had some big indelible mark on my life; he honestly hasn't, i've only seriously followed this sport after the world cup. but i've constantly grown up seeing his name and image; my brother was a culer during prime MSN era, and even without that i've never heard of football without his name. so i guess it's ridiculous to try to write something when i've personally never lived and breathed the highs of his career, or felt the hope and passion for the future that so many kids across the world and especially in argentina have felt. and if you're reading this, you're probably thinking the same, and i'm thinking the same, and i'm still here writing, and i'm going to regret writing this, probably. still, you can't deny the mark he's left on this sport, or the amount of kids who watched him and felt some sort of pride in doing so, and how messi went into this sport just like them, naive and hopeful, and came out as this superstar who forever changed the modern legacy of the country he worked so hard to represent. how he's really just the embodiment of someone with endless passion who kept working, and fighting, and celebrating and grieving and all that. the game's over now and it still really hasn't hit for me that he's done, at least with the bigger stage of his career. i don't think it'll ever hit, i think that's the thing about someone like messi. you just don't ever expect him to put his shield down. and he couldn't have a glorious finish the way you'd expect him to, but still ended it off with a lifetime of accomplishments. you could see this in the way the other players, the entire stadium, the *world* treated him. the end couldn't be more tragic but he still went out with the world's love on his arm, and i hope he can feel how loved and admired he is, by the whole world.