The Extender Analysis

In the article “Playing With Pain” by Michelle Crouch, published by Scholastic SCOPE, in December 2015 and January 2016, is about how when you specialize in one sport, you put a lot pressure on yourself to do well and be the best you can be, but some consequences can be life changing.

It is within human nature to be competitive. While it is one of the most basic and primal instincts that has ensured our survival for centuries, today has become more for personal achievement. In movies, shows and on the internet we are constantly exposed to people competing for various reason. Athletes compete for the gold medal, game show contestants for money prizes and characters in movies for the object of their affections. When we best the challenges we decide to face, we often receive an overwhelming feeling of success along with the prize and, in turn, our confidence is boosted drastically. We are encourage to become the best versions of ourselves. However, when our attempts end in failure, we feel disappointed in ourselves and are discouraged from pushing ourselves again. In modern times, individuals often lack the motivation to challenge themselves because they fear their odds of failure. They would rather remain apathetic than even attempt to push themselves. It is essential that we have the dedication, fortitude and courage to regain the confidence to at least attempt a challenge or alter it to make it more beneficial to ourselves.

Nick Vujicic is one who had to face a huge challenge that required him to try harder than other people. He was born with this rare condition, phocomelia, which is basically born without any limbs. No one will understands how grateful they are to have limbs. Nick had to learn how to do actions without arms and legs. In fact, he was the first disabled student integrated into the Australian

I feel that this excerpt stood out to me for many reasons. The first being that I am sure that many people can relate to this quote and feel that they had a similar experience. Personally, I can relate to this excerpt because I have tried playing another sport, and I tried my hardest to train, but after a little while, I started to realize that I wasn’t truly enjoying myself, which is what sports are all about. Another reason is because many people are unsure of what they want to be when they grow up, and end up spending their time in college for something they didn’t truly want to do. Finally, it seems that many parents choose for their kids what their career choice is going to be without the kid having a say in it. With that being said, many kids can end up doing something they don’t want to do for the rest of their life, and not enjoy the good things in life.

In an article about Blake called “Paralympic Star Makes History on NBA Stage”, the author quotes Blake Leeper saying, “I had never run a day in my life, I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but in my heart I truly believed that I could.” The challenge that Leeper faced and defeated was attempting to do sprints with no legs. In the long run, the never give up attitude and fiery ambition that developed in Blake when he was young paved the way for his Paralympic career. In addition, it also contributes to his inspirational speeches that he gives at different schools and public speaking

Struggling is a natural occurrence in everyday life. Take Salva Dut from A Long Walk to Water as an example. At the early age of eleven, he was separated from his family during a school shooting, later leading over fifteen hundred young boys across the Southern Sudan desert as teenager. In the documentary On the Way to School, a prime example would be young Jackson Saikong. Every school day, he would have to lead his sister on a nine mile journey, racing past aggressive elephants at only the age of ten. From Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water to the documentary On the Way to School, many of the characters featured show strong motivation toward their struggle, not wanting it to be meaningless any longer, thus finding their purpose through their goal.

The article shares, “In her inspirational memoir, Shannon encourages and empowers others to break through and overcome their own personal challenges.” (Shannon Miller, 6) Shannon also released a book called, It’s Not All Perfect: Competing for My Country and Fighting for My Life where she talks about the lessons she learned through sports and how it’s important to everyday wake up and give it your all because you never know what the next day will bring to

Athletics has played an instrumental role promoting success in all branches of life impacting my performance in school, work and other life facets. Involvement in athletics taught me the value of commitment allowing me to play in Division 1 Women’s Soccer while attending the University of Washington. As a former student athlete, I have been winning and losing my entire life developing my own resilience and tremendous work ethic to work with others toward a common goal. My drive spills over into my professional interactions and career aspirations allowing me to connect

Being able to deal with adversity, coach constantly reminds us, is what allows a soccer team to succeed. Not only have these words shown to be true on the soccer field, but the ability to overcome adversity may be one of the most important qualities one can have in life. This made me realize that not everything is going to come easy, and being able to recover from any sort of failure and reach my goals

Mike Fink was born with Spina Bifida which is incomplete closure of the spinal column during the first month of fetal development. He runs wheelchair basketball and is involved with Coastal Adoptive Sports. His parents taught him, he can do whatever he want to do. He has been doing jiu jitsu for 2 years and is a double white belt and has been competing in both able body and disability matches his record is 3-3. He can’t feel right leg and sometimes it gets in his way when he is competing. His coach has never coached someone with a disability. Mike was the first disable person he has coached.

Throughout my life, I would use “I can do it” as motivation to achieve all the goals that I set for myself. Whether it was academics, job positions, or athletics I knew that if I put in the effort then I could triumph over any obstacle. I truly embodied this principle during my Junior year of college. I entered my lacrosse season as the starting midfielder and was a huge part of my teams overall game plan. I was a valuable part of the team due to my leadership and in-game awareness. In our first game of the season, I went down with a knee injury. I later discovered that I tore my ACL and would be sidelined for an estimated 10 months. Lacrosse meant so much to me and not being able to compete with my teammates was a deep blow to my spirit. Rather than complain about the unfortunate circumstance, I set a new goal for

“How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.” –Lou Holtz. While this quote is directed towards sports, it also speaks to those who are not athletes. As in football, if something great is happening after a past of struggle, one should not become lazy and let this amazing thing slip away. Also, if a situation seems hopeless, how one reacts to it represents who he or she is as a person. A person can give up and give himself no chance despite what the outcome may be in the end.

This training without a doubt shaped Kyle’s personality. It caused him to push his mind and body to places he thought he never could. This led to a much deeper sense of loyalty, selflessness, mental toughness, and built bonds of

Fear has been the barrier for goals and dreams leading to great possible success. Especially in athletics, many athletes experience failure and obstacles throughout their athletic career. Therefore, there are very few athletes that do not attempt or avoid the athletic fears. Whereas a student attempts to achieve the top of their academic rank, athletes will strive to be the best in the sport as well. Whether one is an athlete or student, one cannot succeed with just a strong “fixed” mindset of success. They must have more of a “growth” mindset to achieve. One must constantly seek challenge and difficulty in every step of their life. Avoidance is not the way to achieve success; in fact, you cannot achieve anything with avoidance. World-known NBA legend, Michael Jordan shares a very motivational statement through an interview, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve almost

Who can say if it is we who make the choice, or the choice that makes us? I find myself asking this question in the context of my pursuit of a career in neurology. In retrospect, I have made many choices, but choices have also made me. I am the child that was born in Lebanon, the boy that witnessed war, the teenager that got stuck out of his country alone for a while, the young adult that fled his country, and the matured adult who stopped running away from hardship and faced his challenges. At this time, I write to make a choice. I choose neurology. I choose neurology as my first, second, third, and fourth choice.