College Admissions Essay: A Career As An Athlete

Sports has always been a huge part of my life. I would be the one team player who took the sports season a little bit too seriously. I was the number 1 doubles player on my school's JV tennis team. Unfortunately, I fractured my ankle during my junior year and wasn't able to play with my team. I was devastated, but I didn’t allow myself to become disconnected from my team. I became the team manager to allow myself to still play a role in my team, despite my injury. I would record scores to my division leaders and take pictures to post on the website I created for my team. After the season was over, my doctor told me my ankles required surgery to become fully healed. I knew that meant I couldn’t continue to play tennis, but I didn’t want to give

One of the most critical effects sports have had on me is in the decision of my career path. After high school I plan on

"We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort." Running has been a part of my life for four years now and in my short involvement in the sport, it has completely changed the kind of person I am, and the kind of person I want to be. Throughout the past few years, people always ask me "why do you run? What motivates you? And to be honest, I have a variety of reasons for why I am 100% committed and dedicated to being a runner.

Some people think cheer is not a sport, to me it is my life. There is school cheer and competitive cheer, some prefer one over the other or they do both. School cheer is the yippie, go, go, go sideline chants. Competitive cheer is when a team of five or more create a two and half minute routine and compete against other teams on the same level. Both sports take huge dedication to the coaches and teammates.

I could be considered a hidden figure because I am a multi-faceted individual. I have a passion for learning and recalling information. For example, I have been the team captain for my Black History Quiz Bowl team which competes for 6-8 hours, Jeopardy style against other schools. I initiate contact with my school advisers and study groups outside of school hours. Other academic talents include continuous A-Honor Roll, scoring 5/5 in every subject for the state End of Grade testing. I was selected as the highest academic achiever in the 4th grade, thereby receiving honors and recognition at the UNC and Duke Football game as “All Star Achiever.” My next hidden talent surfaced as I attended an amazing summer camp at Clemson University. I built

As I put off opportunities to improve my skills, and my character, the toll only became harsher and more difficult to overcome. In turn, my status among the other athletes began to deteriorate. Witnessing my peers expedite their game as I still struggled did not phase me so much at the time. In fact, I was sure that my role on the team would remain the same. This was obviously false, as within the matter of weeks I was pushed back further in the batting lineup, and committing more errors in the field than ever before. It was during our playoff run that I had realized the resulting detriment, when each player was counted on more than ever before. We ended up making it to the championship, only being one run short of winning. Although our team was able to accomplish that much, I felt short handed when it came to the successful

It was the aftermath of the Friday night game that I’ve given any signs of an injury, and my family and close ones felt sorrow for me and the following Monday. Throughout my life, peers and elders engraved an image onto me being that sports held a bright future for me, and it will lead to the true path of greatness, and one single injury puts me an aggravating, melancholy rut. Viewing my teammates playing angered me since the injury forced me into a world of therapy for the rest of the season. All the promises I made for myself were undone, athletic scholarships, the path to greatness, and my only school pastime and passion flowed throughout my body and into a pipe dream.

Athletics has played an instrumental role promoting success in all branches of life impacting my performance in school, work and other life facets. Involvement in athletics taught me the value of commitment allowing me to play in Division 1 Women’s Soccer while attending the University of Washington. As a former student athlete, I have been winning and losing my entire life developing my own resilience and tremendous work ethic to work with others toward a common goal. My drive spills over into my professional interactions and career aspirations allowing me to connect

I grew up loving sports. My favorite sport has changed over the years, but the love for sports has always remained. Being an athletic trainer would allow me to stay involved with athletics and includes my love of science. Since I was a child I knew I wanted to be a scientist. Started off as veterinarian, then zoologist, then marine biologist but has always been in science. This football season has showed me the career path I want to take. I have recently been on a college visit and talked to a professor in the Kinesiology department. I know that there won't be a lot of free time in the program, so that means not a lot of time to work. This scholarship would allow me to continue my education, even with a limited income. I don't want to have

At the start of high school my life began to take a turn. Up to that point my life had been predictable. I had the same friends, played the same sport, and was still an introverted person. My life was bland. Baseball is what I grew up playing throughout my childhood. It was that sport I looked forward to practicing, playing, and enjoying. As I started to get older, the people and coaches I played with changed. I began to play less, and wasn’t improving every week like I had hoped. I even tried out for the school team, but I was cut. For these reasons, my dedication to this sport was deteriorated. Trying out for the school team wasn’t what I wanted to do, but it’s what I presumed everyone expected of me. Once I ran passed this realization, I stopped playing baseball. This is not how I envisioned the future.

Instead of feeling pressure to conform as a student at the University of Georgia, I have found that being in college has made me value the importance of a higher education more so than I ever had before. During high school, my primary goal was to play well enough to receive a football scholarship. At that time, my focus was not on academics. However, since I've arrived at the University of Georgia, my entire concept of the value of a college degree has slowly changed. Rather than seeing just football in my future, I can now picture myself as a football player with a college degree. Consequently, instead of having a negative impact on my personal growth, college has helped me broaden as a person.

While high school student-athletes invest a lot of time and energy into their sport, the collegiate lifestyle brings a new level of difficulty that many incoming freshmen can find intimidating and overwhelming at first. In addition to being under more pressure to perform on a larger, more competitive stage in front of a more expansive audience, they must also deal with the every day challenges that normal college freshmen face: homesickness, transitioning into a more demanding academic workload, and creating a new social network. College athletes have to have their routines extremely time focused, and make time management essential to their daily lives.

As a student athlete for all of my high school career, participating in sports has influenced me in many ways. It has developed my ability to multitask and manage my work load due to deadlines. Additionally, participating in sports has also influenced me by showing me that anything can be done with enough determination and perseverance. Often times, my school is considered the weaker team because of the small school populace. One of the most gratifying athletic experiences I've ever had is beating out a 'stronger' basketball team and qualifying my school for OFSAA.

I have a background as an scholar athlete who graduated college with the highest honor Summa cum laude. Most PA applicants does not know what it takes to play on a athletic team while successful thriving in the classroom. Most athletes because of athletics tends to pulled away from academics. So to find an full time athlete who has excelled academically while taking several science courses is something to be intrigued by. My success as a student athlete shows that I am able to successfully juggle two demanding schedule while exceeding in both. I attribute this success to the time management skills that Iv'e developed during my years in college. I believe that all PA applicants must be able to time manage well because the PA curriculum is intense

I had to come to terms that unforeseen circumstances are beyond our control which was difficult to accept and instill in myself. Adapting to such a challenge helped me grow as a person. I didn’t let this injury allow me to lose sight on the things that mattered. I used the fact I was on varsity to mentor the junior varsity team in ways I couldn’t before. I became a manager without the official title. The injury shed light on a subject I tended to ignore before. I had become unhappy with track. Nothing stressed me out more, nothing felt like a job more, and nothing felt so unsatisfying more than track had become for me. It is contradicting to express how track helped me expand as a person, but had become something I grew to dread. This sport requires every ounce of dedication and attention from its participants. I was incapable of allowing my life to be entirely engulfed by a sport. I personally could not submit my identity to something I knew I didn't aspire to practice in college. Now, as I look back over that year, I can watch as the blaze died in me that used to hold unfathomable passion. I lost the will to be a part of track. I knew this hobby was negatively harming my physical,