In my town, sports are a very important part of growing up, you make friends, find a passion, and grow as a person. Through my experiences in sports, I’ve been rejected, I’ve been pushed to my limit, and I’ve worked harder and harder every day to play soccer at my high school. When you play for a high school soccer team, it is all about teamwork, improving, and proving that you have what it takes to be a part of a competitive and prestigious program. During soccer, I have learned a lot about what it really means to be a teammate and supportive player. I may not be the best on the field, but I have to support and care for my team if we are going to succeed as a group. In my freshman year of high school, I tried out for the soccer team and got cut because I was not fit enough and didn’t have the ability of the other players. That day was a reality check. It taught me that life doesn’t give handouts and you have to work for goals that I want to achieve in life. Although I was upset, It only made my drive better to make it the next year. Through freshman year, all my friends played soccer while I couldn’t which was a driving factor to improve.

If I were like other people at my school, I would have given up and chosen another sport or club to join because I wasn't good enough to make a team. Instead, I worked myself to improve and prepare so I could try out again next year. The summer of sophomore year was one of the hardest summers of my life. I went out everyday and ran to get fit and shot and dribbled and worked on my ability so I would be good enough to make it that year. Every new day, I would challenge myself to get better to fulfil the requirements for soccer. For soccer, there is a fitness test where we have to run two miles in twelve minutes, one mile in six minutes, and a half mile in three minutes as well as one hundred pushups in ten minutes. In my freshman year, I didn’t even finish the two mile run. The soccer program is all about being fit, determined, and willing to work harder for the team so everyone can succeed. When the fitness day came, all I thought about was that I needed to finish these runs to make the team. All summer, I had been preparing for this aspect of tryouts, I was never really good at running which made it hard for me to get good at it but after the hours of training and working for that day, after all the work that summer, opening the letter saying, “Congratulations, you have been selected for the Ramapo JV team,” all the work and effort felt worth it. All the work I had put in for that moment was all worth it because I was a Junior Varsity soccer player. In my experiences with trying out for teams, I never got my hopes up on making a team. I never worked for something so much and the outcome was worth every drop of sweat, every cramp, and every minute of effort was all worth that few seconds it took to open the letter. My goal for the whole summer was to make the team after rejection the year before. I will always remember those few seconds it took to read the letter and the satisfaction I had from all the work and effort that went into that summer and nights of tryouts. Although its something as small as a soccer team in high school, it has taught me leadership, how to work through physical pain, and how to work together with friends, and coaches.