Transitioning From Gymnastics To Volleyball

When the school year started, I realized I wouldn't be able to do all the things I wanted to do and keep my grades up. I had to choose between my love for sports and my love for the arts. I wanted to continue running on the cross-country team, and later on, do indoor and outdoor track and field. For me, running is important. It's something I enjoy doing, and after the summer captain's practices, I have grown to love the people I run with. The team really felt like a family and I loved being with them day to day. If I continued to run I would do track in both, the winter and spring. On the other hand, I had the arts. I have always had a passion for the arts which not only included painting and drawing but also theatrical performances. Theater has been something that I have done all my life. It has been a way of expression for me and my childish dreams of going to Broadway or becoming an actress have stayed with me to this day. This year I realized how much it meant to me and I wasn't ready to give up on it. I wasn't ready to quit something that I have been doing for years. However, I did want to be part of a new group and join a sports team. It took a long time to decide and one main struggle that has continued is I don't know if I made the right decision. I decided to join the cross-country team and later join the track and field

Growing up in a large family and a busy lifestyle as an athlete has shaped me into who I have become today. My life has been about being the best student, athlete, teammate, brother, son, employee and husband I can possibly be. Being involved in various sports with several different teams, going away to school, getting married have all been big parts of life for me some newer than others but all big in their own way. My life has always been about fighting through adversity to achieve a common goal at no matter what the cost getting to the finish line is something that must be achieved no matter the circumstances. Growing up I was always taught to work hard to achieve your goals no matter what it takes quitting is not an option. If you get yourself in to something and commit it’s up to you to finish what you started. Growing up in a big household with four brothers and sisters there was never a dull moment as something was always happening. It was enjoyable to grow up with so many personalities in my house it taught me how to deal with different issues that others face each day, and to always take others into consideration when making decisions. Being the second youngest in the family I saw my older siblings move out and took it upon myself to be the role-model for my youngest sister and show her that if you make smart and rational decisions good things come from doing so.

Midway into my sophomore year of high school is when I learned that my family will be moving to Massachusetts due to my father’s job relocation. At first, I was set to move to Massachusetts with my family, which meant transferring to my third high school in three years and having to switch to a different club soccer team during the most important year of recruiting for college soccer. Then, an opportunity was presented to me in which I would be able to stay at my current high school and my current soccer team. The opportunity being that I would stay with a close family friend who attended the same school and plays for the same soccer team, but in exchange I would have to leave my mother and father for the next two years of my life. My family and I thoroughly discussed the plan and after many heated arguments and fights, we finally decided that I would stay behind and stay with the Williams family for the next two years of my life. This life changing opportunity has slowly but surely helped me transition from a child into a young adult.

My level five year at gymnastics was problematic and an overall frustrating year. I wanted to quit. The gymnastics meets were difficult because I had a slim chance of finding success in this demanding sport. I sat my mother down on my living room couch and told her this. She, being the kind-hearted mother she is, told me that she understood how competitive a sport like this can be. I agreed, but I knew that to give up too soon would not be the best solution. Reaching my goal of obtaining a first place award on an event would not be easy, but I convinced myself that I had to try. For a ten-year-old girl, I possessed a great deal of motivation, and my teammates knew that. No matter how low my scores were, they always believed in me. Attending

Once a while, eliminating the non- essential things in life and changing routine is necessary. Example myself, I’ve decided to make a change and stop playing baseball after many years playing and dedicating time to the sport. My family has always support me 100% and will support my decision I make no matter which one it is. At times, you feel that things are not working how you like and you don’t feel comfortable at what you do. Even though, I will miss my baseball friends I know they will always be there to support and will always be my friends and support what I do. Baseball will always be my sport

Due to a debilitating back injury, last year I had to give up the sport that was my life for so long. My emotions were all over the place, from depressed, to lonely, missing my friends at the gym, I was a mess. Gymnastics was what I did for so long. All my hard work went down the drain. My main focus turned to school. My interaction with society outside of gymnastics grew stronger. However, I soon discovered that gymnastics skills were not the only thing I learned. Gymnastics is a sport that has hidden life lessons, lessons that I did not realized were ebing taught. These lessons I have taken away, I am applying to my new life. From small things like eye contact when being spoken to that represents respect, how to look at the bright side of things, the value of time, and to never give up on even the most difficult things in life. These lessons have shaped my life and made me who I am. It wasn't all for nothing. The outcome was actually pretty

Throughout my teenage years I loved to play baseball. I was in different clubs, organizations, and teams. My whole life was dedicated to playing ball. Then things started to change going into my freshmen year, I started to get into computers. I decided to enroll into a computer class at Franklin high school. I started to learn a lot stuff about computers and also I was pretty good at it. Also at the time I was still managing to be in baseball. Then going into my senior year I had to choses in between being in baseball or going into computers. I knew going into computers will help me get a head start in my carrier. So I chose to go into computers and quit baseball. I thought I will never have to quit baseball my whole life. It was a very big significant event in my life but good things have come with it. I got three CompTIA certifications, paid for half of my

When I was 9 years old, I started this thing called competitive or all-star cheerleading. My goal at the time was to make it on a level 5 team and compete at the World Championship. Within my first 5 seasons I had a lot of trouble with my tumbling, which prevented me from moving past level 4. Before my sixth season I switched cheer gyms. My parents believed in my goals so much that they drove me an hour and half to and from practice two to three times a week. Within my first year at Tribe which was my new gym, my tumbling issues never got resolved. That left me on a level 3 team where I never believed I was good enough. The next year I was again put on a level 3 team. Now in my eighth season I was put on a level 3 team yet again. I wanted to quit, but my coach showed me that tumbling did not define me and allowed me to fall in love with the sport all over again.

My grades were going down beacuse I always got home late from practice. I was so occupied with baseball that I never focused at school. “How can you play if you can’t focus during scool.” This time, my dad said it in a depressed way while walking out of my room. He got tired of raising hs voice. I looked at myself in the mirror and promised to fix myself, day by day, to become an example of being a student athlete. The following day, I took a lot of notes, asked questions, worked with my teachers after school when I needed help, and I never fell asleep before completing all of my homework. Things immediately picked up with my grades and baseball. I still carry out these habits until now. With all the hardships that I have been going throughout my highschool career, my work ethic is still strong. I continue my endeavors to become a star student and an outstanding baseball player, even if my schedule is full. As people had brought me down in the past, I am now grateful of their opinions. I was able to stop slacking on what’s important. I learned that life has given me obstacles so that I would be the prime example of what I promised myself to

At the start of high school my life began to take a turn. Up to that point my life had been predictable. I had the same friends, played the same sport, and was still an introverted person. My life was bland. Baseball is what I grew up playing throughout my childhood. It was that sport I looked forward to practicing, playing, and enjoying. As I started to get older, the people and coaches I played with changed. I began to play less, and wasn’t improving every week like I had hoped. I even tried out for the school team, but I was cut. For these reasons, my dedication to this sport was deteriorated. Trying out for the school team wasn’t what I wanted to do, but it’s what I presumed everyone expected of me. Once I ran passed this realization, I stopped playing baseball. This is not how I envisioned the future.

I have been lucky enough to not have many major conflicts or negative circumstances in my life. As I have gotten older, however, I have had to make changes in my life and make decisions based on what I want to do in the future. The biggest change in my life came recently, with what I hoped would be a sports career. I have played sports, it seems, all of my life. I played three at a time when I was very young.

Further changes can be seen in my athletics. Although this may seem a mute point to mention, my sports are part of my life and today are part of my career choice. Therefore, my sports have obviously impacted me. In grade nine, I was curling seven days a week on multiple teams and different leagues. I joined the school team and ended the season winning Female MVP. In grade nine I was aiming towards going to Provincials for curling while in grade twelve I now aim towards placing higher than bronze in the 2010 Summer Games for archery. I do not have much time for school sports with my archery outside of school taking off and I rarely get time to go shoot some rocks. Archery is my main focus in sports right now.

I have always been told that I got blessed with my genes. Everything I do athletically just comes natural to me. I have had the opportunity to play multiple sports whom of which I have had success in. In all of the sports I’ve participated in I have loved soccer the most and track is just the most natural sport for me. I’ve played soccer for over half of my young life. Soccer just makes me happy when I play. I have also been blessed by being average at soccer too. I didn’t do well my 9th grade season so coming into being a Sophomore I wanted to change that. I worked hard in the off-season and I became a varsity Captain and I finished the season 3rd in the area for assist and was a 2nd team All-District player. I was proud of myself but i knew I didn’t give it everything I had.

Joining the CWRU volleyball team has been one of the most rewarding, fulfilling, and challenging experiences I have ever been apart of. Being apart of a team can usually be described as a family. We spend countless hours together all working towards a common goal, from conference champions to even an NCAA title. But regardless of that goal being reached, we all continue push each other to be better. By constantly being pushed by coaches and players, I found myself in an environment to develop leadership abilities. As a leader, you also find that teammates will disagree, but I quickly learned to compromise and collaborate with players who did not agree with certain standards set in place. Practices and matches taught me that I will fail constantly,

Using my old experience and old habits I had become just as good or even better than before. As I was on the freshman team for gymnastics, I had brushed off the rustiness from the break that I had taken. Even though the sport is as not tough and rough as club, I still felt the rush that I did before. As I take the skills and lessons that I learned from club gymnastics, I still work just as hard and have just as much fun. As freshman year continued, I started to remember the habits and the reasons why I loved this sport. With a different coach and new teammates, I still felt at home. Jumping back onto the equipment was like riding a bike, even though I was a little rusty at first, I will always remember what was taught to me. Throughout freshman year I have improved and grown potential that I hope to apply later in life and later in gymnastics. I push for new skills and moves every day, but most importantly the sport makes me feel