The Negative Emotions Of Immature Individuals

“In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle or last. You can say, ‘ I finished’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that” - Fred Lebow. I began cross country in eighth grade shortly after my brother joined the year before. He enjoyed it a lot, so I thought it would be fun. I’ve been on the team for two years. I would like to run for the rest of my life. Cross country changed my life positively forever. It taught me to push myself past what I thought was my limit. It revealed to me a great community of people and it taught me to leave my comfort zone.

Although I had only participated in the school Cross Country team for two years, I felt very connected to the team and wish I had participated my sophomore and freshmen year as well. Over the two seasons, I have made many great friends and learned the importance of working hard to achieve my goals. Throughout my life, my parents have pushed me academically, but never really encouraged me to try hard in sports or physical activities. Cross country filled that void for me and helped me become a more well-rounded person.

I wasn’t always a runner. Some kids are born into the running cult, but not me. We have a treadmill in our basement that my parents occasionally use when they got on a health kick, but neither of them pushed me to be a runner. During the summer of sixth grade, my mother was talking to our neighbor in our driveway. While they were standing on the blistering pavement, the subject of Cross Country came up. My neighbor’s son was on the high school team and it was doing a

In physical education we were put to do the mile I was always second to last if not last I wasnt made fun of but I didnt really good about myself. As the years went on I was still fat couldn’t do anything until sophomore year of high school is where it all changed. I remember it quite clearly as if it was yesterday I was sitting in my math class when one of classmates had large number pinned to his bag and a uniform on that hadn’t seen before. That's when I got curious and asked what sport was all this for he then explained it was for cross country and that I should join it would be fun. It turns out that the season was about to end so it was to late to join so I had to wait for next year so I did. I went my junior in the summer since that's when they practiced and ran for the first time. After this first run I thought I was going to literally die and didn't want to this any more and to top it off all the guy runners who I thought that were slow beat one by one. This is where I decided I wasn't going to be last or lose a race to anyone. I practiced the whole year and did track top it off. Now the summer of my senior year was very motivational since I got up early ran and did this everyday till school started to be the best of my high school. Well the season would begin and I was breaking my school records and receiving medals from invitationals and

I’ve always had a desire for running and when I heard Richland Center High had a Cross Country team, I knew I wanted to be on it! When I did start, it was tough. There were times my sanity would ask, “ WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU

For 2 years I was a member of the Central Toronto Athletic Club. CTAC is a competitive middle distance running club that trains its athletes to compete in track and field and cross country events. It is a year round athletic club that is a platform for talented people of almost all ages to train and to focus on their self-progress as an athlete. At CTAC I was encouraged to push myself to test the limits of my speed, endurance and strength and to discover what my body is truly capable of. Running was a very satisfying sport because my achievements were directly proportional to the amount of work that I put in. At CTAC, I learned discipline, dedication and perseverance. I had to balance my schoolwork with daily practices or workouts, I ran six

I turned in my form for Running Club by the end of the week and was ready to start running. When training began, we ran a few laps around the school and I noticed as the runs came to be longer, I would become tired sooner. Miss. Ames noticed and ran alongside me. During the runs, we would discuss other topics which would distract me from thinking about my performance in the run. Later on, the coaches would time the runners to see our performance. Being timed increased my irritation with my performance; however, Miss. Ames reminded me that I was making progress regardless of what my

My four years on the cross country team taught me so much more than how to run. I learned some of the most valuable lessons of my life through cross country. Most years, we had a quote on the back of our game day shirts. One of my favorite quotes read, “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.” This quote is not only relevant to running but to life as well. Every person will experience pain in their lives just as every person will experience pain while running and training. Suffering is often a choice. It can easily be self-inflicted, and, just as easily, be avoided. This quote encouraged me to push through

As an incoming freshman in high school, I was lucky enough to play on the girls basketball team but, I didn’t enjoy it a whole lot due to the fact that I like to be around people who motivate me and make me feel like family and the girls on the team I was playing with didn’t provide that. I love sports and I wanted to continue to participate in a sport throughout secondary school but, I didn't know what to do because I didn't want to play basketball with girls that make me feel unwelcome. That's when one of my friends brought up running on the cross country team. At first I dreaded the thought of running because it reminded me of middle school when we had to run a mile every Wednesday on the track and I didn't enjoy that one bit but, I decided

During the fall of senior year, I joined the cross country team to help prepare and condition me for the track season, in the spring. Skeptical at first, I knew that I didn't have any endurance since I only sprint over hurdles during the track season, but little did I know that the weeks were passing and the end of the cross country season arrived. Though I was one of the inexperienced long distance runners, I knew that I ran the fastest I could because when I crossed the finish line I had an overwhelming nauseous feeling. As someone who runs a short distance, I was proud of myself for making it to the end of the season without quitting, especially since cross country is running for a long distance, which other sports make their athletes do

Between sixth and eighth grades, I tried out for the dance team three times and color guard once. I did not make it onto any of these teams. It baffled me that I could not do it even after six years of dancing. Was I not trying hard enough? This was a rough time for me for I could not comprehend what was happening. However, each time I learned to get back up and work harder. I never did make the dance or Color Guard teams, but my failures set me on my path to finding something that I could do and be proud of. On this path, I found Cross Country. This team did not require a try-out; it was all about gradual improvement. I had never run before, but if my failures taught me anything, it was that I should never give up. My teammates and I pushed

When I was in the 5th and 6th grade, I joined my elementary track team. I really enjoyed running track. I participated in many events such as the 100m, the 200m, the 400m, the 4x400 relay and long jump. When I moved down to Arkansas, the middle school didn’t have a track team so I was not able to join any team to train. I couldn’t do 7th grade track due to there not being a team and I missed the tryouts for the 8th grade track and Cross Country so I missed that year too. The next year my friend told me I should join the Jr. High Cross Country team. I was a bit skeptical about this because I didn’t have an idea what to expect from Cross Country. We got a new coach who was the top runner in the state for Cross Country. He followed last year’s summer Cross Country practice. I received the schedule and showed up for the first practice. I thought that the first practice would be simple. I stayed up with everyone as we ran for the first few meters, but I soon felt a sharp pain on the side of my chest. I stopped running and began to walk.

Then I got into middle school, and I was furious. I would run every day after school and workout. My friend said one day “Hey, you should go out for cross country.”

Being part of Track and Field and Cross Country in high school in my opinion has made me the person I am today. Being part of a team I have learned the skills to be hard working, detail oriented, and self determined. There is a saying that says “Running is Eighty percent mental and twenty percent physical,” and I strongly agree with that saying. Growing up I was not that confident in my abilities and as an overall person. Some may say I am an awkward being and I completely agree with that. Being an athlete especially a runner has made me push not only physical boundaries but as well mental boundaries. If it had not been my brother who was in Track when he was in high school I would have not joined the team. Being the younger sibling I

As Darwin theorized, researchers have learned that emotions serve a biological purpose. They signal to us when there is something wrong or when our needs are not getting met. When we need something that we are not getting or that we’re not getting regularly, we will feel a negative emotion. This could be anger, fear, disappointment, depression, or any other negative emotion. Emotions serve a biological purpose – they tell us when our needs are not being met.