Personal Narrative-It's Time To Put An End To Fence

A problem that I solved that is significant to my future occurred two years ago when I started my sophomore year in high school. I thought my life was over because I was no longer winning in fencing tournaments. I had been fencing, in Saber, for five years and winning tournaments in my age group but my fencing was declining and my opponents capitalized on it. The downfall was triggered by a series of unfortunate events.

At my fencing club, the top four fencers, who coincidentally were all high school seniors, left the club. They had all gone to fence for their respective colleges. After the fencers left, membership declined and, in less than three months, almost three fourths of the remaining fencers left as well. Due to the lack of quality fencers, I did not know if I could continue to fence competitively.

My father had taught me everything he knew from when he was a fencer and I competed with him on my side during every tournament since the fourth grade. I had invested too much time, sweat, and tears to quit now; I was determined to find a solution to my problem.

I was desperate to find a new fencing club; I had gone three months without winning a tournament. The first person I thought of was an old teammate who switched clubs a few months earlier. She introduced me to a new fencing club that specialized in Saber and a coach was an accomplished fencer. However, it was a small club with only a handful of fencers but since this was the only other club within a two hour drive from my house, I decided to give it a try it out.

The new coach taught a different style of footwork so I had to adjust to his fencing style. A few months went by and my competition results were still stagnant; I didn’t know what else to do since nothing seemed to be