As the great Vince Lombardi said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” I am the biggest critic of myself in every aspect of my life. Whether it is in the classroom, on the court, or in my head, I always feel unsatisfied or that I could improve whatever I am doing. I expect perfection from myself all the time, even though I know it is not completely attainable. I guess you could say that I lack self-compassion. At an early age, I was expected to excel in the activities that I was involved in outside of school and in school. My grades are expected to be all A’s, and in sports I am expected to play to the best of my ability. If I do not do so, then my father and I talk about what I can do differently …show more content…
Jump higher. Why didn’t you slam your body on the ground to get a touch on that ball? Everyone is relying on you.” I am very hard on myself on the volleyball court. I expect myself to play perfect every single game, and in this sport, or in any sport “playing perfect” is impossible or at least that is what my coach and everyone that surround me continuously tell me. I can almost hear them in my head repeating themselves over and over and over, like a recording, “Morgan you are doing great, stop being so negative”. My senior year was definitely the hardest season that I have played, physically and mentally. I took on the role of setting, which was definitely out of my comfort zone. I am usually a defensive specialist, which consist of playing defense and passing. Setting was not the position that I wanted to play, one that I felt confident doing, or enjoyed, but my coach thought that if I was the setter then it would give our team the best chance of winning. All I wanted to do was win, so accepting this responsibility was an easy decision. Before many of the games that season I got upset and started crying because I was not setting each ball perfect and I was getting very frustrated. Ideally, a ball that is perfectly set has no spin, like a balloon that floats across the sky. I knew that nobody expected me to set perfect since I was never trained to be a setter, but I …show more content…
Not necessary for myself, but I wanted to prove to everyone in our community, and the other teams, that our team had improved and we were capable of winning and advancing to the next round of sectionals for the first time in my high school career. We played Union County in the first round. We were fully capable of winning, but it was in our hands to make it happen. Before the game, I laid on the floor stretching and trying to calm my nerves. I could smell a mix of buttery popcorn and sweat that made me feel nauseous. As the bleachers began to fill, my anxiety grew. When I began playing, the nerves that I had disappeared and I started to feel comfortable and stopped thinking. This game was the most physically exhausting game I have played. The only breaks that I had were when my coached called a time outs, but this was not enough time to catch my breath due to the fact that I chugged my gatorade. Every point that we lost made me want to play harder and push myself. As we lost the last point, my chest was heavy and my eyes started to burn. I choked back tears of disappointment and dissatisfaction as I told each player on the other team “good game”. Instead of looking around to blame others, I blamed myself. I felt that I did not do enough, and that if I would have played better, or more perfect, then we could have won. Of course the
The True Diary of Luke Skewis By; Luke Skewis Hi I’m Luke Skewis. I’m a 5’7, Sophomore at Negaunee High School. The stories you are about to read and very important lessons I learned from my friends, family, and coaches.
As we were heading for the goal on another break away, the opposing team kicked it out of bounds by the goal. My sister Bailey, who is also on the team, set the ball up for a corner kick. Her kick was a beautiful, high, hard drive to the front of the box. I remember thinking of my trainer’s words, “Anything is possible”. I jumped up at the right moment.
We finished the game off with a win. The whole time while playing I wondered why I had stopped working hard a while ago. I guess when it came down to it, I just shied away from the competition and let Alex easily take that spot on the court. However, I was not going to make that mistake again.
On a cold, frosty, snow cover night in November at Welcome Home Stadium, was when my life changed. That night, two teams played for the chance to call themselves champions of 6th-grade football. All game, my team and I battled against the mighty Wilmington Hurricanes. We fought all game to win and finally we got the ball back with less than under a minute left and down by 4 points. The crowd was quieter than a church mouse as my coaches huddled us up during a timeout, and in that timeout, my coaches looked to me for answers.
First we did passing no one could really pass but then I thought well we could work on that. Then we set, hit, digged and last serving and I felt as if no one met my skill set. What I didn't realize at the time was how cocky I was and how much potential my team really had.
However, I began to see the game as more than just a win or a loss. Losing gave the team the opportunity to closely look at what we did well, and what we needed to improve on. We were then able to focus more precisely on what we needed to do in order to succeed. I was able to learn that being successful and winning were not necessarily the same thing. We had success in a smaller sense; we worked as a team, played clean games and were noted for our sportsmanship.
A sharp sense of disappointment surged through me as my coach uttered the phrase I had been dreading to hear: "I 'm sorry, but Caleb is our starting second baseman this year." After riding the bench the previous season, I wanted nothing more than for this season to be different. The thought of spending the next three months rotting on the bench filled me with despair, and it seemed I was bound to that fate again. I needed to change his mind. I spent the following practices running harder, taking more ground balls, and spending more time in the cage than anyone else, but to no avail.
I gave it my all and pitched like there was no tomorrow. As we were nearing the end of the game the score was close, but we were ahead by one point. It had just become and even more intense that it already was. Every single person was on the edge of their seat waiting to see who would win it all. My team was up to bat
The first game arrived, and expectedly, no playing time. Second game, same result. It did not take long for me to figure out that splinters, not the opposing team, would be my toughest challenge during the season. As the bond between the bench and I grew stronger each game, I began to question my role and importance
We didn’t give up and go home though. Instead after every tournament game, we would practice pitching and hitting. I was working harder than everybody else, and would go to the hotel room exhausted. The night before the last game, my father and one of the player’s parent had a argument about me, which affected my confidence about playing.
but we had a motive we had an inspiration for the win. It was five o’clock and we had an hour till game time, and I was on my way to the field I was listening to music trying to get in my “zone”. I kept thinking about my dad’s words “Make this count, treat this like your last game. You will never forget
I came back with a team that was craving a championships and a positive season because we were a good team this year and we all believed we could make it all the way as champions. Our soccer team overall record was 7-7-1, We achieved only one goal that year and that was to have a positive season but we didn't achieve our second goal which was to be champions. We could have been able to make it to the playoffs but we had students that were ineligible when we had crucial games to play and ended up losing those crucial games. If we had no players ineligible we would have achieved our second goal and possibly would have been champions of the Tri Valley league. Senior night which was our last game of the season we played against skyline which if you didn't know were the champions last year and killed us last year.
As we approached the red and black car, I got into the car and noticed how roomy the car was. I was very exuberated to go to Minnesota. I packed 3 very stuffy bags. One of my bags was filled with clothes. The second one was filled with all my basketball stuff.
I was set on helping my teammates realize that I could be a valuable asset to this team. As the season progressed, my teammates started trusting my decisions on the court and were confident I would try my best to make the right play. I earned their respect as a teammate and made some great news
We were down by one, and I went in at the end of the game, and I took my opportunity to show what I was made of. I played with all my heart running up and down the green grassy field, going up against big guys-- fearing no one. We finally scored to tie up the game. Then overtime came and I was still in. Although we lost that game, it was the best game I ever had.