My Greatest Accomplishments

An accomplishment that I achieved came from a failure that occurred my high school freshman year when I went out for the wrestling season. I had never wrestled and I wasn’t a very aggressive person, which made me unset for this type of sport. When I began I would constantly lose, match after match and I would be frustrated yet fine with my loses because it was only my first year. I continued practicing at full effort because I knew that with harder training I would be capable of improving. I ended that season without any wins, yet the experience was amazing, I loved the concept of the sport and felt great about myself going out there and trying something new.
Sophomore year rolled around and I decided to stick with the sport, excited and

with the spirit to try my best. As the season began, I lost at several competitions and took these losses as a reason to work harder. Eventually, I started winning some matches and became more confident in myself and my wrestling. These victories had me dedicate myself more to the sport, by practicing harder and focusing more on key techniques. I continued to run in a spiral of wins and losses, but I was happy my hard work was paying off. That season ended better than I expected and left me with the hunger to find out how far I could make it in the wrestling world.
My dedication for the sport drived me to to find ways to improve myself and to continue working when the wrestling season was over. Before the following season approached I wanted to practice more in order to not lose any of my previous training. I would attend practices over the summer and attended a training camp. Summer practices helped me keep up with my technique and helped me focus on my wrestling style more thoroughly. While at camp I learned new techniques and moves that I had never seen. Both these ways of training were helpful in order to keep advancing in my wrestling.
In no time the following season approached and I felt ready. I would go to school everyday prepared to learn and when school ended I was prepared to train. I pushed myself to limits I had never experienced, but I knew every drop of sweat and occasionally blood would be worth it. Sometimes depriving myself of a meal in order to be make the weight I was assigned for the upcoming competition and occasionally having to train on my own after practice in order to lose a couple pounds. But in the end, after all the work I had put myself through I got my varsity spot my junior year. All my dedication and hard work was finally being put into motion. Practices seemed to become longer, and workouts more intense, but these aspects of the higher level were not a surprise to me, nor did the make me feel like going back down. Instead they gave me a reason to work harder, in order to achieve the high standard goals set for myself and for my team. Sometimes I would get tired and think, “should I give up”, and I would receive a burst of anger in myself for even thinking of the misguided concept of quitting. This anger always stopped me from failing myself and my goals, that I desperately wanted to accomplish. I continued to train the the best of my ability and by the end of my third year of wrestling, I advanced from starting off as what I would consider the worst of wrestlers to being able to compete at the CIF Southern Section Individuals wrestling tournament. Wrestling has taught me that with dedication anything can be done and that nothing is capable of stopping me from achieving my goals other than myself. I will forever more be stuck with the concept that if I ever want something, I will attain it not matter how long or how hard I must work for it.