Personal Narrative: My Mistakes

If I didn’t get to bat, I learned it was equally important to cheer on my team. If I was placed in the outfield, I was just as eager and ready to make a big play. I learned at an early age the importance of unity and being a team a player. Win or lose we all worked together in order to overcome challenges and strive for success. Because of my positive attitude and devotion to boosting team morale I ended up winning the Best Sportsmanship Award during one of our last games at state sectionals, something I’m extremely proud of. I have since had to take a leave of absence from softball due to a serious knee injury, but I continue to put forth the same amount of perseverance and allegiance towards all other aspects of my

Intro – About a year and a half ago I was training pretty hard to get into shape for the fire academy here at rio hondo. I would run atleast 5 miles a day to keep good cardio, haha I don’t do much of any running any more. Well, One of those days I went on an uphill run with a 20lb weight pack and experienced some pain in my left knee, about a month later It still hurt so i went to the doctor and after an MRI it was determined that I may have torn my meniscus and I would not be able to attend the academy until it healed. Today im going to go over some knowledge I gained about these types of injuries by experiencing one first hand.

One of the things I’m motivated by and passionate about is softball. I've been playing softball since I was little. It’s something about the rush it gives me, when you're up at the plate waiting for the perfect pitch or in the outfield about to catch a fly ball to get the last out of an inning. Playing softball has taught me many things that I can use in my life. One of the main things I will remember is perseverance. Throughout my years of softball, I’ve faced many difficulties that have made me think about quitting: coaches yelling, the long, hot, but sometimes cold practices, and all the losses we’ve had in the last 3 years.

Blood, sweat and tears. All for one sport you love. Going to the fields, putting my cleats on and batting.(Cumulative) From the time I stepped on the diamond, I knew softball was going to be something I was good at. Usually most people start off playing t-ball and work their way up to the big leagues. Not me. I started my third grade year. Of course I was hesitant (nervous), but I got over that fast enough. I played every position possible. I was a strong hitter (usually making it on base every time). But that’s 10 u. Over the years, I became exceptionally good at softball. I had many compliments on how good I was. Parents were telling my parents how good I was. But that was only the beginning.

I came into high school softball not knowing what to expect. I have played since I was five years old, on the green t-ball team, on the ball field behind our Elementary School. When you play sports at a young age, you fail, but do not realize it. I met many of my friends today through sharing a love for the game of basketball and softball. When playing t-ball, you make the team with all your friends and play without thinking where this game can potentially take you. Playing with friends throughout the years, we have gone through failure together, losing a game or making

In total I had joined 6 baseball teams in my whole life (17 years). I don’t want this problem to ever happen again so I’m not planning on joining anymore teams for now, but I may join one during college. I still like baseball even after all these years. Baseball has always been a part of my life. It’s been something I’ve played, it's been something my grandfather has enjoyed, my aunt, and pretty much my whole family. But at the end of the day I think that it was one of the best decisions that I had ever made just because I have more time to do stuff and time to spend with my family members and friends from

Softball has always been a significant part of my life, but without my Dad I would have never discovered my indispensable passion for it. I still remember the exact moment when I realized that softball was going to have a special spot in heart. The only problem was that when I decided that, I was the scrawny little fourth grader who was stuck on the bench cheering on my RARA team. That year was going to be my last year of playing, but my Dad told me to keep at it. I told him if I were to do that, I needed to become as good as all of the other girls. He told me I needed to become better than them, so we set a day each week in addition to our team practices to become a better player.

“I’m sorry Larry, but she’s wasn’t good enough to make the team.” This is the phone call my dad received when I was a 7th grader. He comes in and tells me and he sees how I break when he tells me it. I am not playing junior varsity softball. This may seem insignificant, but to me this was huge. A sixth grader made it to junior varsity over me. I was told that I wasn’t good enough. I was told that I’d never be a championship pitcher. I remember when I was seven or so when we were losing a game on my first softball team. There was three of us pitchers. The first was hurt, and the second was too tired to keep pitching accurately. The coach looks around the dugout and asks, “She is getting tired. Who can we put in?” His eyes hover over me and anticipate that I might be going in the game. The coach looks over me and decides that the pitcher that is physically drained should stay in the game over me, who is still full of energy and ready to go in. I started thinking, was I not good enough for him? Was I a failure to the team? Was I even useful?

Prior to this injury I had sports that I enjoyed and more importantly, kept me in shape. Its really discouraging at the age of 16 to hear that there is a high possibility you may never be able to do what you love again. It has been like a big game of chutes and ladders where the chutes represent, the times of surgery and pain and having to work hard and the ladders represent me getting back on my feet and climbing all the up to reach my goal . Chutes and ladders is such a tedious game involving a lot of ups and downs which correlates highly with how knee surgery

One of my strong points in writing is coming up with ideas and knowing how to get started on a paper. I guess you can say I am a free writer. Whatever in my head ends up on paper and I could write about a lot of things that matters to me or upsets me and feel passion when writing it down, but there also a weakness that I can’t overcome because my inner critic come along with it. Which makes me completely change and overshadow my own writing. I have a problem with revising and not being able to see the flaws in my writing, but that’s not it. I overpower one topic with another one in other words I would mash up two topics that is the exact opposite of each other which contradict my whole paper. The other problem is shorting up a sentence as well

The first time I became officially involved in softball was my sophomore year of high school. The same day I joined is the same day I fell in love. My coach was great! I wasn’t the best on the team and I needed a lot of practice, but he would not let me give up. I have never been so dedicated to something in my life. I practiced every-single-day. I worked through injuries, pain, and heat. Practiced ended at five o’clock; I wouldn’t leave that field until seven p.m. Softball taught me no matter how bad or good at something you are there is always room to improve, to get better. Also, to stay on the team you had to pass all your classes including gym. I became so

I started to reflect back to when I first started pitching. My dad and I spent countless hours in the backyard practicing just trying to get better. I always stayed after team practices so that I could get a couple pitches in. There were times when I threw almost ten games in one weekend. Looking back, I started to question myself. Was it really all worth it? I couldn't imagine not being able to play softball anymore. I have played the game since I was five years old. How could I just quit all of a sudden? My dad and I had a great relationship because of the bond that we created during practices and games. Softball also brought me many great friendships. I met my best friend playing softball. It allowed me to stay physically fit without even felling like I was working out. It also made me mentally

I went down in pain and the next day I went in for an MRI and anxiously awaited the results. When the day came, I waited nervously in the doctor’s office. He walked in and said, “I’m so sorry Marissa, but your ACL is torn.” This was devastating for me, but I refused to give up. I asked him if there was anything that I could do to keep from missing the season. He paused for a long time then finally said, “You can postpone surgery and play with a brace. However, the brace is very large.” I played the entire season last year wearing a massive brace, but I did not miss a game. After every game, my coach would shake her head and tell me, “I don’t know how you do it” I would laugh and tell her, “It was my only choice.” In the back of my mind before, during, and after every game was my surgery. Every time I fell I feared making my injury worse, but I had to take this risk because I had to play. I persevered through a very serious injury because I do not know how to give up. I played my heart out every game and earned All League with that ACL tear. I handle most situations in this way, persevering through difficulties and becoming stronger because of it. I sat in tears in Whittier Hospital on March 5, 2013 awaiting my

One of the greatest life skills that you can attain is to always double check! I unfortunately had to learn this lesson the hard way. Even though obstacles come up, you can always learn from them. In this certain situation, my brother David and I thought that we did something when in reality we didn't.

It all began when I was playing football at Robinson Middle School. This pain had me suffer for a good two years of sports because I wasn’t cleared to be involved with school sports. But then at the end of those two years, I had a miracle from the doctor. He said that “ You are cleared to play sports, Mr. Williams”.