Personal Narrative Essay

I believe in having responsibility for my actions for the rest of my life. Responsibility can earn me a ton of things, such as money and treats. If I do an action or sometimes help my mother with an action, I gain a dollar or two or my mom gives me a treat, like Sweet Frog’s. In this case, I wouldn’t mind being responsible because it involves something that I care about dearly.

I have heard the phrase, “life isn’t easy”, so many times in my life. And I finally realized the truth in it.

Being a professional athlete is one of the most commonly heard dreams of a young boy or girl who currently elementary school. Whether it is realistic or not, these kids will be participating in the sport that they wish to thrive in. But, time after time we hear adults complain about their child’s insane soccer schedule, or how they have to spend their whole weekend traveling for games. The parents complaints shouldn’t be the topic of discussion, in fact the only opinions that matter are the children. The question shouldn’t be asking whether or not youth sports are too intense, it should be asking if it is worth it. If a child loves what they’re doing then they have every reason to continue playing their sport, but if they are not all in, he or she has to question whether or not all the craziness is worth it.

Lately though, these games have lost it’s purpose and the lessons these players could be learning are far from what is transpiring. The emphasis on winning or losing has significantly outweighed what these sports are all about; teamwork and having fun. Alfie Kohn, author of “The Case Against Competition” found a study researched by David Johnson, a professor at the University of Minnesota, and his colleagues. They previewed all the studies they could find on the subject of competition from 1924 to 1980. Sixty-five of the studies found that children learn better when they work cooperatively as opposed to competitively, eight found the reverse. It is proven that you can get the most out of a topic whether it’s school work to sports, you learn the most from working in an atmosphere where they work together not against each other. In addition, children have been enrolled in intense sport training as early as the age of 4, not allowing them to have a chance to really pick what sport they are interested in. A lot of times parents hope to fulfill their dream, by having their offspring due what they never got the chance as a child. This doesn’t give kids the chance to develop and make decisions for themselves when it relates to the sports they want to play. This causes children to not only unhappy but dependent on

Youth sports in general is being reshaped because of how competitive americans are becoming. Every aspect of kids’ sports has become hypercompetitive hyper organized, and all consuming. The craziness in the culture of kids sports has led to the realization the world has changed. An estimated 40 million young adults are participating in a variety of organized sports For those 40 million apart of organized sports they have to give an almost total commitment to playing and being apart of the team (Ferguson). Sports are considered to be a shared cultural experience between many children, and they can

Atkinson, J. (2014, May 4). How parents are ruining youth sports - The Boston Globe. Retrieved November 26, 2014, from http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/05/03/how-parents-are-ruining-youth-sports/vbRln8qYXkrrNFJcsuvNyM/story.html

The next morning I woke up pressed against the wall, my hair in disarray around my head and my shirt bunched up on the sides. I lifted myself up and groggily rubbed my eyes before doing the usual.

“All of us wish we had perfect childhoods with a mother and a father who modeled ideal parental attitudes and taught us how to internalize the tenets of self-love (Williamson).” Many of us, however, did not. There are many pressures in life, one that youth and adolescents need to worry about is the pressure surrounding performance in organized sports. The problems surrounding and the argument about pressure in sports date back to when organized youth and adolescent sports were created in the nineteenth century. When modern sports were invented in 1862, there were many great benefits of sports, such as more people staying physically active and higher grades among students who participated in sports. (“Oneida Football Club”). However, the parental

Auditions for the spring production of The Sound of Music quickly approached. My vocal chords did not understand the importance of that audition to me and refused to overcome my laryngitis. Rehearsing multiple times a day, drinking lemon tea with throat coat and Ricola, putting myself on vocal rest, I made every effort necessary to prepare. The day of auditions, I avoided all dairy and caffeine. After school, I nervously traversed the halls toward the choir room, every note of "That's Rich" from Newsies ringing through my head. Competitors passed audition forms throughout the room, and my hand deftly filled out the familiar paper.

Drenched in sweat, legs tired, heart pounding, and the finish line in sight. I needed to cross it, even if I end up crawling to accomplish my goal. My scheduled event that day was only for the 100-meter dash, but my coach picked me to also run the 400-meter race. I couldn’t let my team down. The last leg of the race was rough. Fortunately I successfully made it through. My drive to succeed gave me strength to do so. This drive and determination has stayed with me all my life.

I am particularly proud of the fact that I did well in my event during track season. I was asked by the track coach to run in an event that I have never done before--300 meter hurdles. At the beginning of the season my times were slow and my technique was poor. I watched the other hurdlers and emulated their effort. I took direction from the coach. As the season progressed, my times steadily improved. At the end of the season I competed for a spot in the regional finals. I am happy that I competed even though I didn’t make the finals. This experience demonstrates my self motivation, my ability to overcome stress and a degree of competence I didn’t know I had in a sport in which success is largely determined by individual effort. At

I can feel the tension in my muscles as the crowd readies itself for the main event.I prepared myself for the final match through boxing,dodging swings,running laps, inhaling when I hold back a punch and exhaling when I release the force of my punch.Without a doubt Gabriel has trained just as hard as I have and I still cannot beat him,until now.I felt more confident than ever as I walked out into the waiting eyes of the audience.I have climbed over many obstacles to get to the grand finale and I plan on seeing this fight to the end.

I could tell you so much about me like I have moved 3 times with my mom but never with my dad, or I could tell you more about when I lost my cat Egon but that is not what I am going to tell you about. Today I will be telling you about all about me.

The pressure to succeed in a sport can cause a tremendous amount of anxiety and nervousness in an athlete. Performing in front of classmates, parents, coaches and other visitors is often the most difficult part of being an athlete. The New York Times Upfront notes “74 percent of the kids surveyed said they had witnessed out-of-control adults at their games.” and “15 percent [of the kids] said their parents get angry when they play poorly”. The fear and “what if” of letting down the team down, falling in front of

When I was young I never realized how significant sports are. I never saw or got to experience the bond that held an individual to their teammates, the teammates to their coaches, and the fans to their favorite teams. Sports are all around me, all the time. My father, being the middle aged arab man that he was, didn’t watch an abundance of American sports like all my friends dad’s did, but he still managed to catch a good amount of football games here and there. I would hear the T.V. playing, the big first down decisions being called, the crowds extreme involvement in the game. I would hear the basketball hitting the court, the shoes squeaking on quick turns. These sounds all came to be very familiar to me. At times I’d wonder why I wasn’t in any sports. My siblings were never in any sports either. Maybe it just wasn’t our forte? The Hasans didn’t play sports, the Hasan's got good grades and played important instrument roles in the band. I learned to accept this philosophy for a very long time In my life.