Personal Narrative: Kneeling In Metal Blocks

You are a top prospect for the NFL, you are the next Peyton Manning, the number one pick in the draft. Your college career was phenomenal! You were the athlete of the century! You led the nation in touchdowns, passing yards, and you won the Heisman Trophy. You are in the last couple minutes to seal off the championship game. The coach calls a play action and you do not see anybody open, you decide to run the ball. You are at the 11 yard line and a cornerback comes up from behind and tackles you. You tear your ACL, your chances for the NFL are over. Your scholarship is gone because you cannot play the sport the college recruited for. Your parents cannot pay for college, your college education is over. You have no money, a half finished

I was lucky enough to have him by my side for all 17 years of my life that I’ve lived. He’s truly a role model and has been through many obstacles and had to overcome adversity. On January 25th of this year, my mom died in a car accident. She was a diabetic and was under a lot of stress. After dropping my dad off at the hospital for work she had low blood sugar and ended up having a heart attack behind the wheel. That took a toll on me. It was the worst day of my life. I never pictured myself growing up without having both a mom and a dad. It hit me so hard that I didn’t want to go to school again and i was strongly pondering quitting football. My whole football team wanted to be there for me and I’d have to say thats one of the reasons i didn’t quit. The biggest reason i stuck with it is because I knew my mom would want me to. She knows that since i was little i’ve wanted to be a football player so now, i do it in her name. Moments like these in my life have made me the strong, hard working individual that I am right now. Last year, during my junior season in the Spring game I tore my rotator cuff and my labrum on my right shoulder completely. I had surgery and now I am healed and ready to get after it my senior year. So far, I’ve been talking to schools like Illinois, Illinois State, Arkansas State, Central Arkansas, Idaho, Miami, and

I graduated my senior year from Highland High School as the Captain of the football team, Head Editor of the school newspaper, in the top 5% of the class and accepted to every College I applied to. I attended the University of Redlands a few months early for football camp, quickly moved up the depth chart and enrolled for my first-year classes. A week before my classes commenced, I tore my ACL, MCL and shattered my kneecap; ruining my chances of continuing to play college football. On the first day of attending class I was in crutches; even though I was disappointed, I

My academic experience goes all the way back to 2006, to a small private school in South Carolina, called Spartanburg Methodist College. I was fortunate enough to receive a soccer scholarship where I would be a student athlete and then transfer to a University. However, as you know in life, things don’t always go as planned. Due to a bad ankle injury during my soccer season, I had developed a nerve disorder in my leg. As time went on my leg was not healing like it should have and it was recommended by my doctor (in South Carolina) that I should go home to get better. My academics have always been my number one priority in school, and I have always given my best. However, I had to work harder then most students. I had to work 100 times harder

Comin In HighSchool I really wanted to play for the basketball team. I would go to Xsport Fitness everyday and practice until I could not walk. I loved everything about playing basketball. I really liked the fans who would come and support my team. Basketball would help from all the trouble around my area. At the beginning of year I went to Coach Kelly and told him “I'm going to play for your basketball team”. He looked straight at me it felt like he was looking straight into my soul. He nodded and said “ok” I then left. I been doing good in school the first 2 months of my freshman year. I was getting good grade until tryouts. I was focusing so much on to making the team my grades stared to slip.

All throughout high school I was involved in sports. I excelled in football and lacrosse throughout the four years I attended my high school. I had no problem going home studying football plays for hours and looking to make myself better for the next game or practice. I could recite defenses and offenses with no problem, but give me a math problem and it was as if it was in another language. Unlike my teachers I got along with my coaches well and they would be willing to help me get into a good school to further my playing skills. That is in reality only about twenty five percent of what you need to get into college. I lacked the other seventy five percent of doing at least average in academics and being a well rounded student. I had some schools contact me about playing lacrosse at their school but once they had heard I hadn’t taken the SAT’s yet and that my grades were a little above failing their interest level dropped. I believe that I potentially threw away some opportunities that could have really benefitted me today. Even if I would have payed attention the slightest bit I could have easily achieved B’s and C’s. I had my priorities mixed up and it really came back to bite me four years down the road.

2 years ago I played football for the MOT Cowboys, I had just turned thirteen. Football season had just started and there were many teenagers my size and smaller than me trying out for the team,the tryouts was about a week long, a week later the teams had decided who they wanted and I was picked along with a ton of other talented kids at football. August 4th, the first day of conditioning, I’m thinking that conditioning would be a piece of cake but surely I was mistaken. The first day I had ran like I have never ran before, after the first practice I was thinking and said “ What did I get myself into”. The first week I was skeptical about even wanting to play football, my brother played football to and he jokingly said to me, “ You look like

My hard work and dedication did not stop. I knew to get into my dream schools that I was going to have to work overtime to get to where I wanted to be. My top schools were Rutgers and Alabama. I had also applied to many other schools such as Penn State, Monmouth, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Virginia Wesleyan, and William Paterson of course. I knew that being able to go seven for seven was going to be very hard for me because of my past grades so I had to accept my fate. The letters started to roll in and I went four for five, getting into Monmouth, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Virginia Wesleyan, and William Paterson while being denied from the main campus of PSU but getting into the other branches. All I had were two letters left and it was between my dream school. I had always dreamed of being a Scarlet Knight or part of the Crimson Tide. My letter from Rutgers arrived and sadly it was not good. I was upset for a few days but it was my own fault. But then a week later, I got my welcoming packet from the University of Alabama. The emotion was over-whelming. I finally did, everything I worked hard for had finally paid off and I got into a school where I thought I had zero chance of getting into. It was honestly the most satisfying day of my

After having a deep talk with both of my parents I started to wonder, what if I finished out my senior year? I decided it was pointless to quit. I had never quit anything before and was not going to start now. After making my decision that I was not going to quit I started to put in more work and completely changed my attitude around and was awarded with positive results almost instantly. My dream had come true. I had finally earned a spot on the state team. Countless practices and conditioning really paid off for not only myself but my team too. We won the Gameday State division for Oklahoma in 2017, and I was a part of it. The second they called our names for 1st place I bursted into a hysterical cry, overwhelmed with the greatest feeling I had ever felt in my life. I overcame the doubts from not only myself but everyone else. I overcame the feeling of not being included in such a surreal moment. I

I was accepted to Fairleigh Dickinson University, earning the opportunity to play college-level ball. I was on top of the world and felt at home on the field. Unfortunately, in my first year at Fairleigh Dickinson, I suffered an injury that would put me off the field for an extended period of time. In addition to my time away from the field, I decided to take a semester off to focus on my academic path. During this deliberation, I felt it was in my best academic interest to return to the classroom. I enrolled in a full-time schedule of classes at Burlington County College, while searching for a four-year program to enroll

My sophomore year, all of my close friends decided to run track which, in my fifteen-year-old mind, obviously meant that I had to join the team as well. The fact that I had absolutely no running experience and about twelve other extracurricular responsibilities seemed to slip my mind as I enthusiastically ordered my

High school came and they didn’t have basketball, so of course I was heartbroken, but I got over it. Then, I decided I was going to try something new. Track & field was the next big thing for me. I didn’t exactly know what I was getting myself into, but I gave it a try. My Junior year came and I was back doing what I was originally known for, playing basketball. I didn’t stop running track, but I made basketball my main priority.

During my freshman year, finishing my final fitness test, the dreadful pacers; I was able to achieve a 63 on the pacers. One of the track coaches approached me and told me I should join track and field. I was hesitant about joining, but after school I walked into his classroom and took the offer. On the first day of practice, I was extremely out of shape; my legs were jello and every time I ran I was always grasping for air. After I completed the intense practice. I proceeded back into the locker room to change out of my foul smelling clothes. With every move aching pain followed. After days of intense practice I attended my first meet.

During my childhood, I grew up knowing only my close family members. As the youngest son in our family, my father was quite protective of me. This created a huge barrier with the external relationship environment. Upon starting school at a tender age of ten, I immediately found myself in the wilderness, knowing no one despite majority of my classmates hailing from my immediate neighborhood. On one of those initial schooldays I was teamed up with a certain blonde boy named Michael Smith. We were required to perform some minor physical exercise which involved competing with other pairs of boys and girls in short distance sprinting.

My palms are sweating more than usual, my head is swirling around the room and I knew at this very moment there was no going back. Was I going to survive this impenetrable situation? My heart raced so fast I felt it falling out of my chest, and I shut my eyes and all I could hear was the loud frightening gunshot. This feeling of sickness is what I live for, track is my friend/enemy. I’ve been on varsity track since ninth grade and it has overall played a major impact on my life. This sport showed me how hard work and disciplinary can take you far. I’ve been doing this for awhile but I always get that “rush” right before any race. I'm petrified before the gunshot, i'm moving so fast i'm not even able to process the moment and everything around