Balance : A Two Way Street

Psychologists around the country stress a need for an active life style to develop healthy self-images. Eric Margenau, a psychologist and author, feels that early and frequent exposure to sports is the key to personal growth. Sports introduce children to healthy competition. A child’s failure in competition helps them learn to win gracefully and lose with honor. It teaches youngsters that through perseverance and determination they can win next time. These lessons that children learn will stay with them throughout their lifetime.

Staying up late to finish up an essay, or studying late at night after a long day of a physical and mental beat down, is pushed through with determination. Sports taught me determination, and it comes with work ethic. Being a student athlete also gave me leadership qualities both in the classroom and on the field. No where in the classroom will I be put into situations where quick decisions must be made and consequences are waiting to follow. The discipline that is required to be successful at a sport has only strengthened me in every aspect of my life. The discipline through sports has taught me to respect everyone, be coachable, and not to sell myself short. Everything learned through sports gives you a big advantage in school as well. For many of us, if it wasn't for sports, we wouldn't still be in school working this hard. Being a student athlete helps prepare you to catch anything life throws at you, and to handle it very well. Gold medal olympian Bob Richards stated that "One of the great lessons I've learned in athletics is that you've got to discipline your life. No matter how good you may be, you've got to be willing to cut out of your life those things that keep you from going to the top". Sports has taken me farther in life and school than I believe I could’ve taken

Occasionally in some athletes’ lives, the parents pick the sport their child participates in. They may do this because they want to envision themselves and their child participating. Athletes’ parents push them to go to practice and games, and they end up quitting due to the parents “gap between the child’s desire to have fun and the misguided notion among some adults that their kids’ games are a miniature version of grown-up competitions, where the goal is to win (Atkinson). This problem can lead to psychological and anxiety issues in children. If a child believes they have to be the best, but they physically and emotionally can’t, it can make the relationship between the parent and child distant and not as strong. Parents hope to see their children in the professional sports; however, only “one in six thousand high school football players will make it to the NFL” (Atkinson). With these statistics, the odds are very low for athletes to make it that far, and parents pushing their children to be that .0001 chance can stress a kid out and strain their academics. In bigger schools, it is more competitive to be on a school sports team, which can cause heartbreak if an athlete does not make the team, but the parent can take it to a whole new level believing that the child did not work hard enough. This can sometimes lead to the student being punished, with

Sports have been a huge part of my life ever since I was about five years old. It has impacted my life so much. The biggest challenge that I faced was with my injuries during basketball and soccer season. I recently had to quit soccer and basketball, which was difficult for me.

The path of life is not always smooth. There are ups and downs, sharp bends and unclear turns. Sometimes you are so bent on your reaching your destination that you blind yourself to other opportunities that life presents. This was my predicament before I joined college- an overzealous academician who was eager to conquer his dreams. Therefore, it came as a surprise when I learned that apart from attending classes, I would be expected to participate in at least one sport co-curricular activity. This was my father’s personal policy. He took it upon himself to ensure that all his children developed their athletic skills. I fought against this ideology. I told him that I did not have an athletic bone in my body. I even complained that adults are not supposed to be told what to do. I argued relentlessly. Needless to say, I lost miserably. “Co-curricular activities help in the development of the mind and body,” my father insisted-and took it upon himself to explain to a belligerent me. He even offered to go with me to college to meet my coach. “I do not need babysitting,” I said grudgingly. He then gave me a handbook and asked me to pick my sport. I knew I had lost the fight. The sports offered at my college included: soccer, basketball, hockey, badminton, cricket, rugby, volleyball, and swimming. After much thinking and critical analysis of each sport, I decided to settle for

Growing up, my dad made sure that my brothers were involved in sports. Because he thought that football was too rough for them at a young age he signed them up for baseball. From then on out, we became a baseball family. Everything we did, all of our family friends were because of the sport. Even though, I did not play the sport, I still loved the game. It was the beginning of my seventh grade year when my dad informed me that it was mandatory that I participate in an extracurricular activity and because my dad was the authoritarian saying “no” to him was not a question. It was then that I decided to join a softball team.

Throughout my life I have always been involved in sports, whether it's for a team or just with friends they have always been apart of me. Once I entered junior high I began playing competitive baseball, a commitment that taught me how to manage my time. With practices everyday ranging from 2-3 hours I was limited to the time I was able to hangout with friends as I decided to put my schoolwork first. I realized I needed to create a balance between school, sports, and friends so I could further my education as well as do the things I love.

I have been lucky enough to not have many major conflicts or negative circumstances in my life. As I have gotten older, however, I have had to make changes in my life and make decisions based on what I want to do in the future. The biggest change in my life came recently, with what I hoped would be a sports career. I have played sports, it seems, all of my life. I played three at a time when I was very young.

During my childhood years, my parents use to encourage me to join in many of physically demanding activities there were for kids. It was sports that drove me to be a very competitive individual and my father’s insistence on playing sports, was welcomed by me from the start. I used to play baseball, tennis and volleyball. Although I did suffer some minor injuries and setbacks, I pushed myself to achieve faster and farther goals every time I played. My teams had won many games, and I feel that my physical abilities as well as teamwork, contributed to our countless victories. Being physically active throughout my childhood years influenced me in many ways; even though I do not play sports that much today because I’m busy with work and school, I still love to remain physically active. For example, on the weekends, I usually get-up early in the morning and go for a two mile run, despite the weather. The area where I live, has some excellent areas for running, and I use the terrain to my advantage. The summertime is the best, however, to go running. The warm, crisp, morning air, still recovering from the night before, is still free from all of the morning rush-hour smog. This is drives me for the rest of the day until the next

When I was four, I went to a daycare and we always played sports and had games. Unfortunately, I was a kid who always got picked last. As a four year old this was upsetting,. So I took it upon myself to tell my mom I wanted to play sports with a team. I wanted to play every sport possible so I started with four of them; basketball, softball, cheerleading, and bowling. Through the years bowling turned into soccer, soccer turned into football, so on and so on. Eventually I ended up sticking to three sports; basketball, softball, and cheerleading, but I played on multiple teams. When I got to highschool, I decided that I wanted to play volleyball. I ended up starting Varsity with no experience in the sport. Throughout my journey of being an athlete, multiple people told me I wasn’t going to make it in life or that I’m “trash.” This pushed me to want to become the best athlete that I could be. To this day, if it wasn’t for me always getting picked last when we played games, I wouldn’t be starting three varsity sports, I wouldn’t have offers to colleges, and I wouldn’t be where I am today. The past surely does affect how the present plays

Bo Jackson once said “set your goals, and don’t stop till you get there. ”Being in athletics for so many years has had a great deal of influence in my life. It has helped me academically, and it has improved my socialization skills that will later be an asset to me in my journey to pursue a business degree. I now have better time management skills that helps me focus on what I need to do before I get distracted with everything else going on in my life. My involvement in many sports has influenced my appreciation for my family, furthermore it has helped me mature along the way.

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Do you feel like there’s nothing you can do to achieve balance in your life? Do you feel trapped by the demands of your job, people’s attitude, or finances? Does everything important seem to be out of your control? Do you strive to manage your time effectively? Do you have difficulties in taking decisions?

Balance. Our world depends upon it physically, psychologically, and spiritually. This principle, although easy to overlook, is the foundation of my personal philosophy. Without balance there is no harmony, no conflict and no growth. Any productive result, any achievement, any strength is useless without it.

Some of the world’s most brilliant minds were not taught in a classroom nor did they attend university. The right to an education has been granted by some governments. Through years of study, the finest formal ways of learning have been discussed to achieve a standard of learning second to none amongst students worldwide. Yet, the debate of informal learning techniques rose sporadically. With recent tales of the success of these people over the decades, the question looms. Which informal style of learning reigns when it comes down to reading or self-education?