Personal Essay: Lessons From Cross Country

I started out as a student-athlete in which I depicted great leadership skills and positive role model qualities such as diligence, enthusiasm, and passion for the sport. Hence, after my first year of college, I was named the team captain. I worked closely with the coaches, helped to resolve team conflicts, established the tone for practice, and modeled responsibility, decision-making, and a strong work ethic. I also promoted a positive attitude and team interactions, and encouraged and supported all of my teammates. Throughout my experience as team captain, I showed mental toughness by remaining confident and focus, and respond to individual and team mistakes in an appropriate manner.

Running cross country my senior year has afforded me many opportunities to develop my leadership skills. The most important leadership lesson I have learned through this is to listen to others. I joined the team with a very limited experience in the realm of the sport, but our team was very young which presented me an amazing opportunity to lead. I had to rely on younger members with more experience than me to make informed and effective decisions. Through listening to the advice others, I was able to lead the group into becoming a more supportive community of

As captain, I led our team to qualify for Regional Duals, a competition we had not qualified for in 10 years. Becoming captain was really the final step in my transformation, when I began I did so it at my parents’ request. And for 2 years I toiled through a great deal of self-doubt and anxiety, as well as a physical obstacle. It came together as I realized that I was the one pushing myself and my teammates, unlike the way I had begun this journey. It culminated when my goals were met, and my hard work and persistence were acknowledged by both my coaches and

I am an extremely passionate runner; my primary focus is to be an encouraging, hard working team member. This commitment entails running up to fifty miles a week, as well as lifting three days and cross training three days for about six months of the year. I pour my time and energy into this sport because it challenges me to become a tougher person. Cross country has taught me to keep a positive, growth mindset and to ruthlessly chase every goal. Additionally, I am best friends with all the girls on the team. I give them everything I can offer to make cross country the happiest place in the world. I am a leader, being named Captain of the ninety person team my senior year. No matter the sacrifice, no matter how I perform, I am ultimately on this team for my teammates.

Throughout high school, I’ve been involved in multiple activities. As I began high school sports, I looked up to the upperclassmen and tried to be like them. As I grow older, I try to be a positive role model for the underclassmen, just as the students before me had done. I believe that being a positive influence on the ones that look up to you is a splendid aspect to have. As my senior year approached, I participated in volleyball for my fourth year. Throughout practice, I was sure to reach

Leadership is a quality I am proud to say I have and I demonstrate that quality through my sports; bringing focus, positive attitude, and determination to my team every time we step on the field and always being available to lend assistance to anyone in

One of my goals is to be a leader in a business organization. Being the captain of the swim team sets a concrete foundation of what being a leader is like in a business organization. As the captain I have to make sure everyone is accounted for, keep morale high, talk about issues about an individual on the swim team, and fix said problem. This shows responsibility, character, and sympathy. These are core values that all leaders must have to be successful. Without them, they will

This was the first night I had been out on the town, since coming of age. After dark I left to the bloody goblin, a tavern near the center of town. I’ve been there many times with my father when I was younger. However, that was many years ago, I recall the smell of strong alcohol burning my nose and the smoke stained roof. I forgot how short of a walk it was to the goblin seeing as I arrived there in just a few minutes, no time to reminisce before going in on my own. The tavern was loud and you could hear the sailors inside singing shanties that remind me of the docks near home. The smell of burning alcohol was strong in the air. The building was in rougher shape than I remember. some of the windows were cracked and some were even broken in. The goblin cutout they had above the sign was sun rotted and ready to fall apart and

We would always begin our practices with sprints and one long run before we continued with technical drills. Many girls struggled with the endurance aspect of soccer. I would always do my best to finish the run, then immediately head back to the last person running in to finish so that they would not feel singled out during these athletic struggles. I thought of how great our soccer team was going to become. The chemistry seemed just right and to the point where we could see ourselves winning the district tournament at the end of the year. Unfortunately, my dreams of victory came to a halt when I started to see divisions on the team. These divisions started due to one of the seniors talking down to underclassman, especially to one of the most talented girls on the team who became our top scorer. This particular senior became jealous of our top scorer and decided to ban girls together so they wouldn’t assist her in her attempts to score. Thankfully our team’s talent led us to win most of our games, but I could see how much these divisions were hurting us as a team. I decided to talk to my soccer coach about the matter to get his opinion. He reminded of my captain position, and how I am expected try to resolve these situations as well. I concluded that

I have learned a great many things from playing soccer. It has changed my entire outlook on and attitude toward life. Before my freshman year at Cool high school, I was shy, had low self-esteem and turned away from seemingly impossible challenges. Soccer has altered all of these qualities. On the first day of freshman practice, the team warmed up with a game of soccer. The players were split up and the game began. However, during the game, I noticed that I didn't' t run as hard as I could, nor did I try to evade my defender and get open. The fact of the matter is that I really did not want to receive the ball. I didn't' t want to be the one at fault if the play didn't' t succeed. I did not want the responsibility of helping the team

One cold sunny weekend in February of 2014 in Madison, MS the Saint Stanislaus boys just arrived to the hotel where they would stay for the night before the big game. All was good the night before we ate and later went to sleep. We all woke up around eight in the morning and had breakfast. We left for the fields around twelve because the game was at two in the evening.

“Life is like a baseball game. When you think a fastball is coming, you gotta be ready to hit the curve.” -Unknown. Baseball is a game, one that is not timed, one that is not rushed either, but is only allowed twenty-seven outs. For some it means everything to them, for some the opposite. Even though it is just a game, the characteristics and necessities that come along with it, is what people don’t understand. Baseball can teach individuals, all ages, the tools they need to help themselves, schooling and their future. Within this comes the aspects of teamwork, self-confidence, and the importance of family.

As a freshman, you seem to get treated as dirt. When an upperclassmen tells you to do something, you don’t hesitate, you do it. This was how my freshman year was anyway. I have played sports all throughout high school, and every year I have seen the same things happening over and over again. The senior and most upperclassmen expect the freshman to do as they say. After my freshman year, I thought I would do the same, make sure the freshmen felt the same pressure on them as my class did when we were that age. However, as my junior year and now senior year roll around, my perspective started to change. I noticed that more freshman didn’t respect the upperclassmen, they were just intimidated by the seniors. I decided then that I was going to lead

It was a fine Sunday Morning. I was about to experience a fun day of baseball. It was a beautiful afternoon for a trip to the ballpark. I could hardly wait to get there to experience all of the fun things. I was with my brother and his girlfriend and my two nephews and me.I got there by car with my brother's girlfriend and me and my nephew. When we got there we went to the park there and played on the playground. Then we headed up to our seats which were all the way at the top ,one of the best seats in the house. I went down to the concession stand and my brother gave me $20 to buy three pops and a small pop for my nephews and me. The guys who comes to you and give you the ice cream and stuff. we got slushies

My personal experiences of leadership started when I was younger, roughly 7 years old, I was elected the captain of my travel soccer team. At the time I didn’t think much of it, nor did I have any extra duties that I was explicitly told that I needed to perform. Later throughout the season, I started to notice my teammates mimicking my styles and techniques and I highly enjoyed this feeling of being looked up to. I didn 't realize until years after that the recognition and pride I felt was leadership. This privilege of being captain was the first time I had realized that people weren 't necessarily following my actions because I was extraordinarily skilled, but because I provided this role model status with my confidence and encouragement. Some of the most valuable leaderships traits that I acquired and fortified are: