Personal Narrative: Make It Take It !

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

We had basketball tryouts on october 31st and i was doggin them folks on the court they couldn’t handle me and i was just a little 9th grader and they were all 11th and 12th graders they must have felt bad but i know they didn’t because i used to play against them all the time in practice so they already knew what it was. I was 6’3 and JJ was 6’4 by the time we were 9th graders and we made varsity when we picked our jerseys i picked my dads old number because i always wanted to be different from him but htis year i had to honor him by wearing his number the number is 1. We had our first practice and i kinda started to tear up a little bit because i know my dad would be proud of the man i became and the ball player i became he always said i will be better than he ever was just because of the passion i had for the game and the little smile i had every time a ball was in my hands. Practices kept going on and on and me and JJ earned the starting spots on the team we were getting very popular amongst the student body. The first game came up and as always me and JJ weren’t scared we were ecstatic to play against better competition and show the world what we can really

There I was on the block next to the High Bar. It was about 5:00 at night when my coach told me to do a Kip. As I got up on the bar my nose filled with the smell of chalk. I started to swing, and as I came out of my half turn I looked good. Everything seemed fine but as I came to the part of the Kip where I have to pull my legs up to the bar, I slammed my shins into the bar. My momentum was stopped and I dropped on to the mat, missing the Kip. I felt like I had let down my coach and I had let down myself too. That day I experienced failure. That failure made me want my Kip even more so I worked harder and had support from my teammates.

He knew it was going to be a no excuses to lose to weather and it was going to be a good day for fans to watch football tonight. He had met with Kyle Cannon who was the quarterback for the team and a running back on the team named Dion Gordon;

At a young age, I moved from the country I was born in (Dominican Republic) to Miami Florida. Moving is not an easy thing to do, I had to leave all of my friends and family behind and become familiarized with uncertain place. I was surrounded by the unknown, everything was strange and so different to what I was usually use to. At the time I could not speak any English at all but that eventually did not matter to me, I slowly started adapting to my new environment and I became more positive. Although I could not communicate well and had a few obstacles I was very organized with my studies and kept very decent grades.

8:00 A.M at a basketball tournament in Chatham, Illinois. Playing with the grade level above me, as an 8 year old, I was scared to death. It was an honor to be asked to play with the older girls, although I didn’t realize this at the time. As I arrived to the tournament, I was nervous. I got into the game for the first time,

At a very young age, I began making my own decisions and putting myself first. After my parents got divorced, my mom decided to move. The move wasn't small. In fact, it was a very large one. We were moving halfway across the world. I did not understand why we had to move but I knew my mom would always make the best decisions for our family. First, it seemed cool when I was telling everybody. But then it hit me hard, knowing that I wasn't going to see my friends and family for a very long time. At the age of eight, I did not understand what was going on. I felt like I was out of the loop. I was going to have to make new friends and meet new people even though I did not know the language. Even when it came to finding something to eat, we did not know how to order food. It was a great struggle that was hard to overcome.

If I'm in...I'll be All-In. While I'll be the first of family and friends to attend the University of Colorado, Boulder and unsure of the challenges within the campus community, I know myself. I am at my best when I fully commit.

I had played since I was in fourth grade and I liked to consider myself mediocre at the least. After about thirty minutes of playing we all decided to start a tournament; two on two. Alex and I decided to be on a team, and there were about six other teams of two that joined in the tournament. With my basketball background and compared to the other teams, I knew Alex and I definitely had a substantial advantage in the endeavor. As I suspected, we won the tournament without much of a hassle, although when we finished, we had been breathing hard, so the sense of accomplish was still prevalent. Little did I know; that cold October night would be the last time I was able to play basketball for seven elongated

The summer of 2015 was the summer I moved for the first time in my life. Moving was a mix of emotions because after thirteen years I became attached to my bedroom and the looks of my house. The certain smells I would get when I walked through the door. Then, leaving that house that I have lived in and that bedroom I slept in for all those years was hard. It was a nice house and all, and I loved my room, but only a couple days later, I was already comfortable in my new home.

I practiced and played basketball on a daily basis. Everyday at recess, my friends and I would play pickup games against each other. I watched the Chicago Bulls on T.V whenever they were playing and I looked up to my two favorite players Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose as role models. I loved how passionate and great Joakim Noah played. I started to play with the same type of passion that he plays with. I loved how aggressive and great Derrick Rose played. I started to play aggressive like Rose does. At recess, the next day after a Bulls game, my friends would imitate the moves of a great play made or imitate one of the announcer's (Stacy King) excited voice when a great play would happen. As recess would end, my friend Arman would chant “3! 2! 1!” If the shot went in, he would say one of Stacy’s King's popular phrases like “Big time players make big time plays!” If Arman made a great play driving to the basket, I would sometimes say another one of Stacy King’s popular phrases like “He is too big! Too strong! Too fast! Just too good!” We would also shout regular basketball phrases. Sometimes if one of us made a great shot, somebody would say a simile like ¨that jump shot was smooth as silk.¨ My brother and I

“Ready let's do this!” Those are the last words I heard from my coach until I got hit. This all started as a normal practice, until my Alex (my coach) asked me to something new. The thing she wanted me to do was a front flip while my bases threw me in the air while holding on to my backspot Izzy’s hand. So they threw and as I was coming around my hand and Izzys hand somehow came undone and her elbow came down my head was coming around and they hit. When I got hit I kind of blanked because my coach told me that I kept going after I got hit and I don’t remember that till this day. So after my bases let me down I started crying because it hurt really bad and after I sat on the ground I felt my head where I got hit and it felt like I have a 5 inch bump coming out of my head. So my best friend Laura went and got me ice from the trainer. When she got back with the ice I put it on my head and I suddenly felt tired. I told my coach that I was really tired and she said that I had to stay

Since I was a kid, I have always been competitive in the things I do, no matter if it’s sports, games, or just in everyday life. Growing up I would always ask “Mom, can I please play basketball”? Although the answer never changed I would always be persistent in asking for it One day when I was just about the age of 7 I was watching a basketball game on TV and from that moment forward dreamt of playing basketball no matter what, but even then my parents never let me play. Sadly for the next few years it was the same thing “Mom can I please play basketball”? Over and over again I would expect the same results. However when I asked this time she gave me an answer I never expected, an answer that would make a huge impact on my life.

My first basketball game is something that I feel my dad well prepared me for. My dad used to work the “graveyard” shift at his job. The graveyard shift is when you work during the night and you are off during the day. So during the day my dad used to play in men's leagues at rec centers and when we went he would take me to an open hoop, give me a ball, and would tell me a drill to do and I would do them until he was done with his game and then he would give me another drill to do until he was done with the next game. This is something that we did everyday I feel like this is something that

I always loved playing basketball since third grade, and at one point in my basketball career, an incident happens that changed the way I thought of people. In eighth grade, I played basketball for GEYBA, “Glen Este Youth Basketball Association”, and played on a team with my friends. It was a weekend, and I had a basketball game. My Mom and I got ready, and she drove me to the Glen Este Middle School Gym. My mom was the scorekeeper for our team. We both went in and sat down before the game started, watching the game before. I sat with my team and talked to them about random crap, that I can’t remember. When the game before us ended We went to our spot to put our gear down. My coach at the time was Zach Collins Dad, and he told us to practice layups, and jump shots. We did our practices, and watched the other team practice, and talked about how tall, or fast their team was. Coach told us who to watch out for, and what position We were assigned. I played the third position or a wing. During the end of the game, the other team had the ball and went for a layup on my side that I was guarding. I jumped up to block the ball and landed oddly. I couldn’t tell something was wrong with my left foot until I started running towards the other side. I had a sharp pain in my foot, I started calling for a timeout while limping towards the other side of the court. I limped over to the bench and said I broke my foot, realizing already what my coach was going to say. I stayed to watch the end