College Admissions Essay: Achieving Goals In Life

In life, there are many things that you may want to achieve. To me achieving my goals was something that made me feel exhilarated and very proud of myself. Even though you may want to reach your goal, it may not happen the first time you try. You may have to try multiple times. It may not always feel good after you fail, but you should always get up and try again. I learned this lesson in seventh grade, when realized how much harder I needed to try if I wanted to be at the skill level needed for eighth grade.
In the summer before seventh grade, I decided that I wanted to play softball for the middle school. That same summer, my family decided to take a trip, and it was scheduled to be during the week of softball tryouts. I missed three days

of tryouts because of our little family vacation. Because of this vacation, the coach did not get to see what I could do. When she got to pick and choose teams, I was not chosen for the first team, I wasn't even starting for the second team. I was actually pretty good at softball for that age, so being stuck sitting the bench playing second string for the second team was devastating. I doubted myself every chance I got to play, and nothing is worse than the feeling of self doubt. During tournaments and games, I would get almost two innings of playing time because there was a girl playing ahead of me. There was this one tournament when that same girl playing ahead of me was sick and I got to start. My coach was a little shocked when I played my heart out. I guess after that she remembered my name, but it was too late because by the time she did the season was already over. It’s really sad to think about what could have been and what kinds of chances that I could have had if we hadn’t gone on vacation, but after that year, I decided that nothing would get in my way.
For my eighth grade year, I was determined to start on the first team.

Nothing was going to stop me from reaching my goal. The tryouts were grueling and I was exhausted after weeks of practice. All the girls who were a year younger became seventh graders and it was so comforting to have them there because I had been playing with them for my whole life. They helped me be more confident just by being there. The last day of tryouts I was pushing my body to the limit. The day we finally got our jerseys and got to know what team we were on was the only day that I looked forward to for weeks. The night before, I was so nervous I could not sleep and I had butterflies bouncing against the walls of my stomach. The eighth graders got to look at the list first since we were the oldest. The anticipation was eating me alive. Our coach had set up a list at the end of the dugout with all of our names and it told us whether to get the blue or the red jersey. Red meant first team and blue meant second team. I rushed to the list as soon as we could and scanned through the blue list first, I found my name on the red list. I was filled with joy, as I ran over to find the number that I wanted. I left practice that day thinking of all my hard work had paid

off.
My eighth grade season went really well. Our team only lost two games and both of those were tournament games, so they didn’t count towards our regular season. Being a Durant Middle School softball player made me so proud. Whenever people talked about our season, all the memories rushed back to me and filled me with joy. Every player has their story, and mine has been told a few times. Not being seen the first year might be one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me.When I was a freshman in high school softball, one of the eighth graders at the time came up to me after one of their practices and told me how the coach told them about my story. My old coach had talked about me to the younger girls. About how I give up on what I wanted, and how my hard work eventually paid off. After knowing that my coach talked about me, it has made me so much more confident with my playing, even though I haven't played for her in years.
In day to day life, people will impact you. Sometimes it may even be hard to forget what happened. Most of the time when you are trying to reach your goals, you impact someone. You can make that someone want the same joy that you had. It is the best experience ever to reach your goals, and reaching them with people you care about beside you is even better. I am so glad that when I was younger I wanted to play softball for the school. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be playing on the high school team today, and that means I wouldn’t have a team that is as close to me as family.