Personal Narrative: My Passion In Soccer

“I learned about life with a ball at my feet.” What do you first think about when you hear the word soccer? Do you think about the coolest goal ever made? Or maybe the best jukes you’ve ever seen? Well there’s more to soccer than scoring goals and juking people. To some people, there’s a meaning to every goal, kick, and pass. Soccer has a meaning. To some people, soccer is just a dumb and , boring sport that is completely useless. But to others it’s a lifestyle because, it revolves around their everyday life. There’s people passionate about this sport, and I’m one of them.

When I first thought about how soccer impacted my life, nothing really came to mind. I was that kid who mostly looked forward to the end of the game snacks and bringing around the goal jar. But when I actually began thinking about more about playing soccer I realized that soccer was the first place where I was fully submerged into something completely new. I learned how to make friends, how be a leader, and how to have good sportsmanship. These are all things that have made me into the person I am today and it all began on the soccer field.

Having only one soccer club in Bend to play competitively on and having a relatively small population put me playing with almost the exact same group of girls in the club as I grew up. This also left me knowing everyone who plays soccer and consequently when I got to high school soccer, I was still with the same girls. We had been playing with each other for 7 plus years and had become an incredibly close unit on and off the field. Some of my closest friends came from playing soccer. Soccer had helped me break out of my shell socially and provided an outlet for stress relief. My life revolved around soccer.

“Congratulations, this is the 2013-2014 Mission Vista Men’s Varsity Soccer team.” I still remember the words coming out of my high school coach’s mouth as he spoke to the new varsity team after tryouts. I was the shortest and one of the youngest players on the team, but my passion for the game was not any less than anyone on the team. I was one of the only three sophomores on the team with a team dominated by juniors and seniors.

Being shoved to the ground and coming up with a mouthful of turf and a bloody nose isn’t the ideal way to spend a friday night, but for me, it's something I put blood, sweat, and tears into. Soccer has been a passion of mine since my father dropped me off at the local YMCA when I was at the tender age of four. Spending all of my free days for thirteen years running after a soccer ball is arguably what made me into the person I am today. Unity, tenacity, passion and pride have all been morals that are valued within the sport and in my own philosophy. I have explored places I’d never give a second thought to because my sport took me there. Friends I had made came from the sport I played. I never ended up asking for friends to come over because to me, practice was hanging out with my friends, doing an activity with a purpose.

Soccer is my life.Every weekend we travel all over Indiana and Ohio. But One Saturday morning my soccer team, my family, and I got up early for a soccer tournament in Ohio. The first game we played was a team called the Celtics at 8:30. The score was 1-0 we won. During the first five minutes of the 2nd half, we scored a goal.Also, the game was very physical people were getting shoved to the ground and kicked. But during the game the ball bounced off the side and almost was a goal for the other team but we saved it and before we saved it my team and I all screamed,” Go to the ball and get the ball out of the box” After, we played a Cincinnati United team at 3:15 at the end of the game the score was 5-1

One of my best days was when my soccer team won the championship. I won several other championships ,but with other teams.This was my first season playing with this team. The major characters in this event were me, my teammates, my coaches and the parents. This event took place in a park at sanger during the summer. I was twelve when my team won the championship. “ Championships bring joy and happiness ,but takes a lot of work to get there.

My heart was beating so quickly I could feel it in my throat, sweat was running down my face and all I could see is the stadium full of people clapping some with smiles and others with straight faces and then I remember looking at the judges table and felt like my blood has somehow run cold and my heart seemed to still increase with speed. I glanced at the judge's face for one second because we were not allowed to look at them but there faces were embrained in me even if I just glanced at them for a second. They had the straightest faces no response, no satisfaction, almost like they were bored. This competition is what I lived for what I waited for and what I worked so hard for and in the end I fell apart on the most important day of my

I have been playing soccer since before I could even walk. In fact, I joined my first soccer team at the age of five. Soccer is something I have always loved and been passionate about. When I was on the co-ed recreation league teams I was one of the only girls on my team, so I had to compete with boys who doubted me and thought I was weak. I worked hard during practice and out of practice to become better and, eventually, I became more aggressive than them. My eighth-grade year, I tried out for the school’s co-ed soccer team and was confident that I would make the team. During the three hard days of try-outs, I pushed myself to improve each day and received several compliments from the coaches. On the last day, the head coach pulled me aside to tell me

I never thought that a trip to a soccer game could change my life drastically. Everything can change from one moment to the other and no individual sees it coming. My family’s plan was to go to our hometown’s championship soccer game. Needless to say we never made it there.

One incident I can recount when I experienced failure was when I joined Cross Country. Since, I can remember I have always excelled at everything I did, from my academics to dance class to music lessons. When I entered into my freshman year of high school, I decided I would to join an athletic team in order to keep myself occupied outside of academics. I figured joining a sport would be another good attribute to add to my resume. Initially, my mind was set to join the soccer team. However, I found out there weren’t any openings available. The only team that had an opening was The Cross Country Team. I was terrified…my parents encouraged me to join as there wasn’t an option not to.

The soccer player was getting closer as my palms grew sweaty and the ball raced toward

There is no greater feeling then when I step onto an iced over soccer field and hear the grass crunch beneath my feet. I love the soccer ball and everything to do with soccer. My best moments were in my high school soccer games as well as the most entertaining indoor soccer experiences. I’m glad I made the diction to join the soccer team back in the eighth grade. Soccer brought me out my kind of addiction to video games which were my life during my childhood. Soccer got me outside and around people more to socialize. It was not easy for me at first to just go and join the soccer team after not playing any sport since I was around seven years old. I worked hard for about a year before I joined the high school team. I spent many hours outside for many days to get into shape and fit enough to play for long periods of time.

I live about 4 hours from Fort Wayne,Indiana. I am from Chicago,Illinois and was born and raised I had an amazing childhood. My parents would took my sister and I once a year on vacations. This would include all over Europe basically, Hawaii, Cancun, Toronto and The Bahamas. All my life I dreamt of because a professional soccer player. Playing for 12 years made me realized that I grew apart from the sport and It wasn 't what I loved anymore. I was more like a job at the end of the day and I couldn 't stand the presser and the stress. In high school I took a lot of engineering classes and I started to enjoy something else then soccer. I came to IPFW to pursue my civil engineering dream. In my spare time I like to play volleyball & soccer

One of the most significant activities in my life would have to be soccer ever since I got a hold of the ball in 10th grade, it sparked my interest and a fire was ignited. It simply stared with a few friends asking me to join them then slowly progressed into everyday after school I would go outside to kick around the ball, I never really knew it was for me until I started getting more into it, soccer became my outlet more like an escape for me, it was somewhere I could go when I needed to be alone just the ball and I. Honestly, I never knew that it would affect me in the way it has, it started out as a just for fun kind of thing, then it escalated into actually playing games, turning more into a passion and I could actually see myself in the