Athletics is ingrained in the human experience and is an integral part of American culture. Because of that, many of my weekends and after school hours have been dedicated to either watching a game or starting one with the kids in the neighborhood. Athletics runs deep in my family. My great uncle was a professional baseball player and my family, including my father, three brothers and a sister, are all very involved with the various team sports. It’s this immersion into various sporting activities that has led me to the understanding that engaging in athletics has a very positive impact in our lives. Additionally, sports are extremely important in building one’s character through hard work, learning to work with others on a team and by learning how to cope with the joy of winning and the inevitability of losing. One thing to know about any sport is that there is no free ride. You earn recognition, all your playing time, and a starting position through hard work. I grew up playing all kinds of different …show more content…
There is a common saying that says, “teamwork makes the dream work” and I think that is especially true. Most sports are played as a team, which allows you to depend on your others in order to perform well. On every team that I have been a part of there have been people I haven’t necessarily liked or got along with. Learning to deal with these types of people was a big challenge for me to overcome. At first, I tried to ignore or avoid those individuals that I didn’t get a long with, but that was impossible. Eventually I would have to work with them in order to win the game. My coaches would always say that, “we won as a team and lost as a team” which, to me, meant that no matter how well I performed individually, it always takes a team to win or lose. That lesson has become even more real as I have served in the military these past two years. Failure to work as a team can get someone hurt or even