Personal Narrative: Marista

There’s a saying that everyone’s said at least once in their lifetime, I’m sure. It’s so cliché, but now I know that there is so much truth behind it. “Believe in yourself.” Rather than giving up on yourself, use your failures to make you better. Learn how to bounce back from adversity and learn from those experiences. This is called using your growth mindset. According to Carol Dweck, research psychologist, in her book Mindset, “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” It wasn’t until the summer between my junior and senior year of high school that I learned this and of course I learned it the hard way. I had played club basketball for four summers in a row with the Longmont Rush basketball club. I loved the game of basketball and I had spent countless hours working on my skills on the court. I even wanted to play in college. I already had schools scouting me. Unfortunately, in my final season, just before my senior year, my biggest fear came true.

Four minutes later 13 scored to make it four to three. The cheers of the crowd echoed in the arena. Then we went 10 minutes without scoring. With 5 minutes left. I skated around the defensmen went to my forehand, backhand. Score! It was four to four. Now it was tied.

Sunday April 24, 2016. This was the date of this tournament. The team that I’m on is called the Berlin Bulldogs. Berlin is the town that we support, and Bulldogs to support that we’re a tough and strong team. We played eight games and lost 3, won 3, and tied 2 of the games. Most of the parents that we had to support us, were supplying the food and drinks so that we wouldn’t starve or run out of drinks. We had a chant, a great team, and the best coaches that guided us through the success that we needed. The worst part of this tournament was that we’re a 2nd league team and we were playing against the best of the best teams. The strange thing was that we won against one of those teams by 10 points (they must have played against really easy teams to become the best of the best teams!). The fields that we played on had the greenest of grass, but the fields were horrible because there were many areas that had holes and many people on the teams came off the field in pain because of falling into those holes.

happy and not sad that we lost that would really be a bummer if that happened’’.

Nearly every time I had a tournament, I frantically checked the draws, praying for an easy win. Every time there was a player better than me, I gave up and just left it all to fate. As expected, I would lose easily. My losses took a huge toll on me. I began to lose matches against players who were supposedly “easy” to beat. Rather than blaming it on my weak mind, I would blame my skills, or even something irrelevant, like the noise level. I would then practice for hours trying to improve my groundstrokes. While my game improved, my mindset never changed, leading me to continue on a losing streak. Changing this mindset and overcoming this challenge took a while. I forced myself to not look at draws before a tournament and play the best I can. By doing this, I did not let my mind and my self-confidence become a hindrance to my game. In a couple of months, I got so used to playing without fear of the person on the other side of the net that I was unfazed, even after returning to looking at the draws before a tournament. As a result, I learned to relax more and focus on playing, rather than focusing on my

It is argued by some commentators that having nerves can improve your performance (Lancaster and Janes, 1994). Feelings of nervousness helped me to focus on my presentation however things did not go the way I planned them. I can only

Everyone was so happy that we won the championship because my team has not won in 10 years it seems like forever. The crowd was cheering so much for us. I was so happy that I have tried my best all the time and that it is ok to make mistakes. We make them all of the time even if we do not notice

After not making it freshman year, it would have been easy to quit. It would have been a lot easier than to keep up my practicing routine and try again next year. It would have been more convenient. It would have saved me hours of time, and a lot of money in private

to play. I came back to school and the cut list was up. I made the team. I was

test. I grew to love competition. I never saw myself as much of a tennis player

Although still nervous, my pre-game preparation lowered my anxiety and I was able to focus upon listening to my client. One thing I did notice, it took me a bit to formulate questions during the session which felt awkward, but Jim and his wife did not seem to notice. In the sessions we have observed in class, therapist intentionality sometimes comes across as hesitation which helps me understand that my awkwardness may be a normal part of speaking with an intentional focus upon the clients’ solution.

After that game we waited for results to see where we were placed on the brackets.We were ranked fourth in the golden division. Without even having to guess… Marshal was ranked first. We then played Harper Creek (the team my friend was on) and beat them again. Which meant that we would play Marshall again but this time in bracket play. This means if we lose then we go home. I didn’t want to go home at all, and I think that my team would definitely agree with me.

I played center field the first game, and we won! That means we would either get first, second, third, or fourth place in the whole tournament! “YAYYYY!” shouted the team when we first heard the news. My coach reminded us to not get too excited because we still had more games to play. Then it was time for the next game. I was pitching. I threw one of the best games of my life, but we ended up losing by one run. We got fourth in the whole tournament, and there were 15 teams there. We had a very successful weekend,

Together with my other team members, we decided to practice for the tournament on a daily basis. We kept watching

One person I’ve always looked up too since I was little would be my mother, Maribel.