Personal Narrative: A Career As A Soccer Player

There I was again, sitting on the bench, as I watched my friends get to play in the game. My head filled with thoughts of jealousy and disappointment. Was it really worth it to be on a soccer team, where I barely got to play? On the Woods Charter soccer team, I was not very good, the coach rarely noticed me, and I seldom got to play. But over the summer, I was focused and worked really hard. so I would be able to show my skills in a real game, and I also learned a lesson. I believe that if you work hard enough, you will be rewarded. This I believe.

It’s the first day of soccer tryouts in 7th Grade and I’m feeling excited and confident. I look down at the field and see kids warming up and then I see an unfamiliar adult. It takes me about two

seconds to realize that there is a new coach this year, which means I have to prove myself again. Unfortunately for me, in that tryout I did not prove myself and I made mistake after mistake. In a practice a couple days later, my team is anxiously preparing for our coach to tell us the starting lineup. He says, “In goal, we have Justin. Our two centerbacks will be Forest and Patrick. Our right back will be Michael and on the left...”. Knowing that left back is my position, the butterflies in my stomach multiply, then coach continues, “...will be...Cory”. Then my heart drops to my feet. Our starting lineup might have changed throughout the season, but never was I part of those changes. And all I did was complain and discredit those who were fortunate, when I really should have been working on making myself better.
After that season, all I could think about was the disappointment of sitting on the bench.

But I knew that if I didn’t get any better at soccer, I’d be sitting right back down there next year. So that’s when I decided that this summer, I was going to work harder than I’d ever worked before. A couple of months later, school ended and summer began. But by then, the temperature was in the upper nineties. That meant that I felt like I was on the surface of the sun, but I was determined, and I wouldn’t let that stop me. I practiced every hour of every day. I practiced dribbling, juggling, shooting, passing, and I even went for a run occasionally. On day, near the end of my run, all I could think about was lying down and taking a nap. I looked up at the blinding sun, and felt its rays burning through my skin. At that point, the only thing in my head was one word: quit. But my heart said no, and I knew that was the right thing to do. And every other day when I wanted to quit, I knew couldn’t, so I pushed through. And you’d think after all that practice and perseverance, I would be unafraid and enthusiastic for tryouts at the end of the summer. However, a few days before soccer tryouts, I asked Jared, who was also going to tryouts, “Do you think you’ll be a starter this year?” Jared, who started in 7th grade, said, “Yes”. “How about you?”, he asked. “To be honest, I don’t if I’ll even make the team”, was my

answer.
On the day of tryouts, my stomach was doing somersaults, as usual.

I get to the field and I see a few unexpected faces. Marky, a very talented soccer player, and some new 6th graders. I’m always happy to have more people on the team, but for me that means more people I have to out perform. As we went through the day, I, unexpectedly, played pretty well. I didn’t overthink it, I didn’t force anything, I just used what I practiced. And a couple weeks later, before the first game, I was getting deja vu. “Huddle up guys!”, yelled our coach. We circled around as he read out the starting lineup, “In goal, we’re going to go with Justin. Jared, you will be our sweeper. Ari, I’m going to put you at stopper, I want you to take their best player out of the game.” My mind went berserk! Yes! I’ve finally done it! But what I really said was: “Yes, coach”. Unfortunately, we lost our first two games. In the second game, we lost in overtime, on a goal that I let in. I was crying, I was angry, how could I do this to my team? However, I only let that get me down for that day. After that, any mistake I made, I just worked extra hard so it wouldn’t happen again. We only lost two more games for the rest of the season, and I personally think it had much to do with how hard we

worked.
My experience on the middle school soccer team ingrained the belief in me that if you work hard enough, you will be rewarded. In 7th Grade, I didn’t put in the effort, and as a result, I didn’t get the playing time that I thought I deserved. But after that, I did everything I could to improve myself as a soccer player, and I deservedly got a more important role on the soccer team. I think that everyone should have this belief because they’ll have a better work ethic and see the importance of hard work. Everyone does everything for a reason, so why would anyone want to put in the effort if there’s no incentive? And while that seems like a “me first” world, I think it’s good to have a purpose, and if it makes you work hard, even better.