Exemplification Essay: Strive For Progression

“Strive for progress, not perfection”- anonymous. Lots of times people will tell themselves they can’t. Such as they can’t lose weight, they can’t make an A on a test, they can’t be friends with someone. They are seeing the world as black and white. They must expand their minds to the gray of it all. Not everything has to be absolute and one-hundred percent, if you’re trying and doing well then that’s better from where you started. Often times in sports people make excuses for why they aren’t doing well. But ultimately the only person you can truly hold accountable is yourself. While I play lacrosse I push myself as hard as I can. People on my team often say “I wish I was as good at you at shooting” and I take the compliment graciously.

I felt as though it was easier to quit than to work harder - and it is - but the outcomes are extremely different. I ended up continuing playing and went to a summer camp at Berry College where they taught lacrosse stick skills. I went with a few of my friends but I was clearly one of the worst players there. One day I got incredibly frustrated because I wasn’t doing well and then my coach said to me “ You’re doing a lot better than you were two days ago and that means a whole lot more than just staying good but never getting better.” And so this changed how I looked at things. If you look at things as a huge monumental task that’s completely unattainable then you will be intimidated and not want to try or succeed, but if you look at the smaller pieces of it then you will more than likely do whatever you need to do to finish the whole task. When I got home from that camp I worked every day to be able to catch and throw and shoot more accurately and better than I did the day before. When I got to Parkview in 9th grade I made varsity and ended up being 1 goal away from being the leading scorer. My sophomore year I was the leading scorer for all of Parkview lacrosse, boys or girls. I made an extremely exclusive travel team and continue to play on it and get looks from colleges including Birmingham Southern, Jacksonville University, Newberry College, Young Harris College, and Tennessee