Personal Narrative: My Color Guard Team

Junior year. My junior year I realized things about myself that I hadn’t previously known. Things I’ve never done before and things people thought I couldn’t do. Situations I thought I wouldn’t be in and there I was. Junior year, I did it.

When I was younger, basketball was all I wanted to play, it just looked like so much fun. In fifth grade I had my parents sign me up for CYB, then in sixth grade I tried out for middle school basketball and played all the way up until ninth grade. In middle school when I was in eighth grade I was awarded the captain position and that helped me build leadership and responsibility. All of the players especially the younger ones knew they could always come to me at any time if they needed anything or help with anything. High school basketball was a lot different than middle school. In middle school I was one of the star players so I played a lot but in high school that changed. I sat the bench a lot that taught me patience and understanding even

The year you were a tiny fish in a big pond. I remember freshman year being a complete disaster, there is so many juicy events that took part in making this year a disaster but the one that hits home the most was during the middle of the year.

It was my sophomore year, and the day had come to find out who made the varsity lacrosse team. We piled into the locker room to discover rows of brand new helmets. The list of the varsity players was written on the whiteboard. The team was excited, the locker room buzzing with noise. My heart dropped as I realized that my name wasn’t written there. My friends were admiring their new helmets and I had to hold back tears and disappointment. I know now that I still had to be developed at the junior varsity level, but it wasn’t easy to understand back then. At practice that day, I played out of pure spite, every move filled with rage. You aren’t good enough, I thought. I left practice that day without saying goodbye to my friends.

I believe joining my high school lacrosse team was an influential part of my high school career. Having social anxiety, it was not always easy for me to be around others kids. Joining the team thought me to face my fears and that sometimes it is better to stop thinking and just take that “leap” into whatever you're afraid of. Secondly I learned to push through challenging times even when I wanted to quit. Lacrosse also allowed me to meet people who I would come to look up to, and cause me to want to improve myself for the better.

Growing up and throughout my life, I have loved watching and playing football. As a little kid, sports meant everything to my family and me. My dad played all kinds of sports while growing up and encouraged us—my three brothers and me—to do the same. Growing up in New Jersey, you are either born a Jets fan or a Giants fan. Lucky for me, I was born into the Big Blue—a New York Football Giants family. Throughout my sports career, I experimented with baseball, soccer, swimming, golf and even ultimate Frisbee but there has always been a special place in my heart for football!

With a score of 44 to 37, the Varsity Football Team won against the Midway Panthers last Friday night at Waco.

In the Army we all have different definitions when we first start, some or on the right track and some couldn’t be further from it. Only as strong as the weakest link because this person has the weak skill set to the team therefore the team is limited by those set of skills. Most of us can say that we have been on both sides of the scale. At times I have been the one to contribute the most in a team and have had times where I was just going with the flow of everybody else’s and not really helping my team in any way.

Our 8th grade basketball team were putting on a show! Opponents would enter bobcat territory where our team would play a hard fight to take another win. Every game spectators are left in astonishment after witnessing determination, willingness, and our spirit until the clock expires down to its last second.

One situation in which I overcame adversity is making b-team basketball for White Knoll High School. Basketball has always been a love of mine. I first fell in love with basketball when I went to an Atlanta Hawks game with my dad when I was 5. Afterwards, my dad purchased a basketball goal to go over the garage and we spent most our weekends playing in the driveway. The next year my dad signed me up for a recreational league in the area, and I played in the same league for 5 years. My dad was my very first coach. The pride he'd have on the sidelines when I made shots or played good defense forever cemented my love for the game of basketball.

It was the middle of October of 2013. In the south, this is a great time of the year, its called football season. It was a pretty big year for the Mobile Christian Leopards football team, as this was the year that we were supposed to go the 2A championship. It also was a big year for me as well, as I was senior and sat out my junior year. I was in great spirits that year. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad year for me.

Call it failure to capitalize on an opportunity or failure to commit 100% effort to my team; both would be true and both failures lead to lessons learned my junior year on the high school varsity soccer team. From the time I was little, with my dad as my coach, success came easily and failure was a concept not easily grasped. Playing on the JV team my first two years of high school was pretty much a given, and in hindsight, I realize how valued I was on the team. I started most of the games both freshman and sophomore year and played a significant amount. As my junior year was approaching, I knew this was not going to be the case. Desperately wanting to make the team, lots of training and hard work was how a majority of my summer free time

I do believe that it is very important to be involved with not only your school but also

My senior year, I was team captain of the Lady Horns Volleyball team, and it is a year to remember. I will never forget that first game where our coach called me over for the coin toss. That moment I knew I had to be mature, and keep my head up because I was a leader for this team. It can be really difficult at times to keep your head up and stay pumped

One rainy night in November, I arrived to the church gym for my first basketball practice of the season. As I walked in the doors creaked and you could smell the gym floor. As I already heard the basketballs hitting the ground, bouncing up and down. My friends Brittany and Destiny walked in right behind me through the door. That was when we realized we were the only girls surrounded by all guys. As practice came to a start we began to run, it felt like we were never going to stop. Up and down the court as we ran suicides, you could hear the squeaking of shoes as we went from the next line back and then on to the next. Before we started scrimmaging, the two captains were boys. Brittany, Destiny, and I stood in amazement as we were the last three standing there. You could see by their expressions they didn’t want any of us on either team.