Personal Narrative: How Soccer Changed My Life

For most of my life, I was skilled in organized sports, especially soccer, which I had played for many years. After a successful soccer season my freshman year, I thought that I would make the JV team for sure. At tryouts, I went through the motions of each drill. I breezed through the conditioning tests, doing the bare minimum for each test. I didn’t try as hard as others, as I felt that I was more skillful than most of my peers.

Soccer’s been nothing but good to me, providing those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities some may only dream of. From competing in nationwide tournaments,

As a child, I grew up playing travel soccer, and it was what my life revolved around. My weekdays were filled with practices, my weekends filled with tournaments. Soccer was all I knew and all I wanted to do. I had dreams of making my high school varsity team, and even one day playing when I got to college. This all changed during one weekend tournament. My team and I were in the first half of the first game that weekend when I was injured and carried off the field. From that point, I never stepped foot into a soccer game again.

One of the most significant challenges I never thought that I would accomplish was to become a starter on my soccer team. Since my freshman year in high school, I was one of the smallest kids on the team, was not very fast, and was not one of the most physically fit . Even though I never seen a lot of playing time, I continued to work to the best of my ability.

It was the second semester of my senior year, and soccer season was just getting started. Prior to the first game, our coach put us through an extensive winter conditioning program. Looking back, it was the hardest I have ever pushed my body to this day. Having worked so hard, I was very optimistic about the season ahead. That optimism, however, quickly changed.

Personal Statement As I lined up for another “suicide” sprint, summer sun scorching, muscles taut and ready to fire, I could not help but begin to let my mind wonder if I was cut out for this. Defining moments like this one emphasize my ability to understand the long term orientation needed to complete goals in life. Hard work, on hot summer mornings were easy to come by at the beginning of my division 1 collegiate soccer career. I have always found deep internal gratification in becoming a better soccer player. Whether it was learning one new move, or becoming .1 of a second quicker, my goals and dreams revolved around reaching the highest peak in soccer.

I’m naturally exceptionally athletic, and, as such, have always been one of the top players on my soccer team. I never felt challenged to be better, or try harder, because I was good enough without having to put in much effort. Then, I was put on JV soccer my freshman year. Though crushing at the time, it made me realize that I needed to push myself harder.

I grew up playing soccer as kid and participate I various tournaments in highs school playing for school team. Soccer has been a part of my life from the beginning. My family are all soccer fanatics heck my nation itself (Nigeria) are soccer fanatics. “Football” as we call it back home was almost like a tradition and very much part of our culture as a nation. I played soccer at every chance I had whether it were on the streets barefooted or on a proper field. Needless to say, it is my favorite sport and I play with a couple of friends on the weekends. However, when I’m not raving about soccer, I do engage in artwork and animations. I love to draw, mostly cartoons or comics. I find it very relaxing to just pick a pen or pencil and draw. I often

I thought less about the high school soccer team I didn’t make, and more about myself. I didn’t cry after the games anymore, and while the team still possessed little skill and our record reflected this, I didn’t hate it. This soccer team stressed me less than my high school’s, and I put less pressure on myself. I still wanted to play well, but with the stakes not nearly as high, it became an enjoyable pastime. I focused on school, kept the job that I planned on quitting in the fall, and even found more time to volunteer around my school and community. I focused on other pieces of my life, and less on soccer, but in a way that made it more fun. It’s not a colossal part of my life anymore, and though not making the team still stings, I have come to terms with it. One thing cannot define me. While I still enjoy playing soccer, I realized I have so much more to

I’ve been playing soccer a long time, longer than i remember. My dad says i've played since I was four. Despite that, as a freshman in highschool I still wasn't very good. id simply drifted through ten years worth of summer and fall leagues, only picking up enough skill to become the captain of my school's C team.

It’s always been in my genes to play sports and work hard at whatever I do. My grandfather played sports through his infancy and my father played soccer all through his life to become a better person, but financially he could not move to a distinct place that would allow him to play division two soccer in Mexico and then rise to play professional soccer. I worked hard when I first started to play soccer, I was a bit overweight and it didn’t allow my body to excel as my father wanted, but I worked hard. The experience that shaped my soccer career all began the beginning of high school at Aurora Central. This was a strange environment that I was not remotely used to. The school was massive to my perspective and I did not know how to navigate

Constantly seeing the results of my hard work—and my teammates’—was gratifying. However, during a friendly exhibition match, everything changed. A player slide tackled me during the game. I laid on the grass, feeling a searing pain emanate from my lower back. I tried to stand, but I fell. Pain shot up my leg like needles digging deep into my skin. I was carried off the soccer field, the place where I had become a confident, self-motivated individual.

In year 10 I decided to stop playing soccer, it was an unusual time for me. The standards from grade 8 and 9 were nothing to what I had been facing that year and I didn’t know how to cope. Pressure to do well in school and excel in sports was daunting, my father wanted me to become a medical doctor and a professional soccer player at the same time.

Due to my reckless decisions while I played soccer, my time playing in high school was short because I had developed a vascular malformation on the arch of my right foot. The pain I would experience because of my vascular malformation was unbelievable. If I do not take anything for the pain, my calf would hurt. When I first found out about the existence of my vascular malformation, I had been devastated over the idea that I would no longer be able to play soccer. One of the reasons why I chose to play soccer was because I could step out of my expected gender role and be aggressive. I was ridiculed by individuals around me that a woman was not supposed to be aggressive, she should be feminine. Soccer was my escape. It allowed myself to be aggressive without being completely

My freshmen year of high school I decided to try out for the soccer team. High school was a new start. I was ready to make new friends and create new memories. Going into try outs I only knew one other girl on the team. The other people in my grade I knew of them, but I knew little about them. I had never played any sports before. Therefore, I had zero soccer experience. My lack of experience led me to constantly compare myself to other players. I compared how far they kicked the ball, how many goals they got, and how fast they ran. I thought to myself, "I will never be as good as them". The second say of tryouts came around, and I only made it to the first session of two. I had quit. My fear of failure got the best of me, and I lost the opportunity to learn from other people.